The Taken Shinigami
by shinigami-shane
Summary: When Ichigo was fighting against Ulquiorra their Cero's clashed, creating a dimensional vortex. Ichigo was sucked into it and emerges in a completely new and different realm to those which he has been accustomed. Rating may change based on content.
1. Soul Divide

"Kurosaki-kun…Kurosaki-kun…KUROSAKI-KUN!" Orihime cried as Uryū was effortlessly beaten around by Ulquiorra in his Segunda Etapa form.

From his almost-dead state, Ichigo heard Orihime's pleas for help and searched through all of his soul, trying to find the strength he needed in order to protect his friends. He found it. However, in the process, he lost all control of his body as he was taken over by the hollow inside him. The hollowfied Ichigo fired a supercharged Cero at Ulquiorra, who fired back an equally powerful Cero Oscuras. The two Cero's met halfway between the two titans. Both fighters put in increasingly absurd amounts of power into their respective Cero. When they could put in no more power there was an explosion which caused a distortion in space-time to appear.

The distortion drew all things in the nearby area into it. In a strange twist of fate though, Ulquiorra saved both Orihime and Uryū from being sucked into it, anchoring them to the ground by spearing them both with a Lanza del Relámpago in a non-vital region of their chest before generating one for himself and spearing it into the ground, holding onto it until the distortion disappeared. He had no fears of either Orihime or Uryū's dying, knowing that his orange haired charge's powers could easily undo any damage inflicted by his attacks. However, Ichigo was different. He had no compunction about letting him be sucked into the distortion due to his being a threat to both himself(Ichigo) and anyone he met in the future. Ulquiorra stood idly by, watching as Ichigo disappeared into the void, ignoring the cries from Ichigo's friends for him to help him too.

After Ichigo was gone he let the Lanza del Relámpago that he was holding onto fade from existence before stalking towards Orihime. Once he had removed it, he told her, "Heal yourself, woman." Orihime followed his order without question. Once she was healed she followed Ulquiorra as he moved to Uryū and removed the lance from him. Orihime healed him as soon as the spear was done.

After the Quincy was healed he demanded, "Why did you do that, Hollow?"

Ulquiorra sighed and said, "You probably wouldn't believe me, even if I told you."

XXXXX

In a different realm, Mirajane cried out in pain as she watched the life fade from her sister's eyes, rivers of tears streaming down her face.. a black magical seal surrounded, splitting in two, one raising up, the other down, as she said, "Take Over, Satan…" however, before she could complete her transformation it disappeared, along with the twin seals and most of her remaining magical power. Even if she had been able to transform, she knew, she would have had problems controlling the powers anyway, due to the heavy distractions of both her sister's recent death and the fact that she would be fighting her younger brother. Her brother had been completely overwhelmed by the Beast King as he hadn't taken the time to fully 'understand' it and its powers before attempting to perform a Take Over on it.

After Mira failed in her attempt to call forth a form that stood a chance against Elfman's first Full Take Over her brother raised his left arm back to prepare to backhand her. However as he did so a rippling appeared in the air above him and out of it shot a single being that, as it fell towards the two siblings, split into two separate ones in a pale blue glow. The orange haired humanoid landed about ten metres away from Mira, however the white, horned creature crashed into Elfman, knocking them both to the ground around thirty metres away in the same direction that Ichigo had fallen, crushing all of the trees in their way.

The transformed Elfman pushed himself up off the ground, flinging the hollow off of him, pissing the powerful creature off royally. The hollow roared at The Beast, wordlessly challenging him. The Beast roared back, accepting the challenge and moving towards the hollow, using both its legs and arms to move at a phenomenal speed. The hollow exceeded it by leaps and bounds, easily crossing the distance in the blink of an eye and punching the beast in its chest, sending it back a further ten metres. Normally the blow would have been enough to kill an opponent, but The Beast was no normal opponent. It was the king of monsters, one of Zeref's more powerful demons and the blow didn't even break a single bone in The Beast's chest. The hollow roared, angry that it hadn't killed its opponent, thereby gaining a meal.

Mirajane watched in horror as the battle between the two mindless creatures continued, The Beast taking all of the blows that the, to her, unknown creature dealt, but unable to land any of its own due to the vast difference in their speed. Mirajane struggled to move over to the orange haired teen that, upon closer inspection, seemed to be her age, and gently shook him. The boy groaned as he woke up to see a silver-haired, scantily clad, girl looking down on him. He asked, "What's going on?"

The girl said, "That's what I should be asking you."

"What you should be asking m…oh!" Ichigo exclaimed, seeing that he was in the middle of a forest rather than the stark nothingness at the top of the dome of Hueco Mundo. "I don't really know. The last I knew, I was on the roof of Hueco Mundo and now I'm here."

"Hueco Mundo? Is that a Dark Guild?"

"Dark Guild? What the heck's a Dark Guild?"

"What's a…how can you not know?"

"Like I said, I was…"

"If it's not a Dark Guild then that doesn't matter right now, what does is what that _thing_ is," Mirajane said, pointing at the ensuing battle.

"That _thing_?" Ichigo asked as he looked where Mirajane was pointing. When he saw a hollow battling some kind of massive hollow he asked, "Why are there two hollow's fighting there?"

"Hollow? What's a hollow?"

"Those things there," Ichigo said, pointing at the two fighting.

"I was hoping that you could tell me about that smaller, horned one is, but the big one is my brother"

"No way!?" Ichigo exclaimed, hearing that the girl next to him was related to the massive beast that was sporting crown-like horns. "Wait. Why would I be able to tell you about the smaller one?"

"When you were shot from the ripple thing in the air you glowed blue and were, kind of, ejected out of that thing before it crashed into my brother and they started fighting."

"I…" Ichigo said as he closed his eyes in thought, '_Okay, last thing I remember, Orihime was crying out for my help when I…_' Ichigo's eyes shot open. "Okay, I might know what that thing is, but…"

"What is it?" Mirajane almost begged.

"It's kind of hard to explain…"

"TRY!" Mirajane demanded.

"Alright then. Where I come from there are three different…I'll call them 'races' for lack of a better term, of spiritually aware beings."

"Alright…" Mirajane said, unsure of what the strange boy meant by _spiritually aware._

"One is humans, who can have varied levels of spiritual awareness, some of which manifest powers unique to themselves. The other two are beings that are fully spiritually aware and have access to a number of abilities that the humans don't, Shinigami and Hollows. Are you following me so far?"

"Kind of," Mirajane said, mentally comparing shinigami and hollows to mages like herself and he friends at Fairy Tail.

"Good. Now, I'm kind of…different…"

"How so?"

"Shinigami are beings that have greater amounts of Reiryoku after they died and passed on into Soul Society."

"Soul Society?"

"Yeah. Where I come from, it's the ultimate destination of all souls before they are reborn. Shinigami balance the number of souls that exist in both the human world and soul society, otherwise the two realms would collide, destroying both."

"That's…"

"Unbelievable? Yes, but no less true. Hollows are humans that lost all hope and reason because they stayed in the human world too long after they died and eat human souls before they can pass over to Soul Society in order to fill the loss of their heart when they transformed into a hollow. I'm…kind of different," Ichigo said.

"Different how?"

"I'm still alive but have the powers of a Shinigami. Unfortunately, in my rush to gain those powers I somehow managed to gain the powers of a Hollow along the way. This is just a theory here, but I would assume that, since you can see me, I've somehow materialised on the physical plane in…wherever this is…in the process losing access to my powers as a Shinigami and, consequently, my hollow powers. It is possible that that horned creature fighting your…brother…is a manifestation of those powers."

"I see," Mirajane said. "So basically you are useless in this situation."

Ichigo slumped his shoulders in annoyance at being called useless. He said, "I think that useless is a little…"

"Well, what can you…actually…" Mirajane said as she thought, '_If what this guy says is true then he _understands_ what this thing is and is capable of. That would mean that he would be the only one in this situation that has any chance of…but no…that's not possible, he can't ever…_' Mirajane then frowned as she concentrated, focusing in on the untapped potential inside Ichigo. '_He's a clean slate!_' Mirajane mentally gasped, '_If that's the case then it _might_ be possible for me to…well, if I don't then there's no chance of us getting out of this alive._' Mirajane kissed Ichigo, transferring a portion of her magical power to Ichigo, along with her knowledge of Take Over magic.

When the girl with silver hair flung herself onto him, locking lips, and tongue, with him, he blushed furiously. But then a series of memories rushed over him and he knew what he had to do as Mirajane fainted in his arms. Ichigo crept up on the fight, silently in order to not be targeted by the battling creatures. He waited until his previously inner hollow was distracted, charging a Cero before making his move. He ran at the hollow as fast, and as quietly, as he could from behind and placed both hands on his back, saying, "You've already caused enough problems, Hollow. It's time to take you down."

The hollow transformed into a mass of black magical power that was sucked into Ichigo, causing him to growl, not wanting to vocalise the pain he was feeling as the power took root in his body. When the magical power of the hollow had been absorbed Ichigo announced, "Take Over: Hollow Soul!" twin black magical circles formed, one over his head, the other around his feet. They respectively descended and rose, meeting in the middle, transforming Ichigo's appearance completely. His orange hair now reached halfway down his back and he was wearing a set of torn, white, hakama, without a shirt. But that wasn't the starkest change. That was left for the horns that now extended forward from the sides of his head. He was holding a white daitō with a red tsuba in the shape of a manji connecting the hilt and blade of the sword. It possessed a red hilt wrapping and a red tassel attached to the pommel.

Mirajane woke up just in time to see Ichigo successfully complete the Take Over. She was momentarily concerned that Ichigo may have been taken over instead of the 'hollow' that he had told her about, but then she noticed the colour of his skin wasn't white and thought, '_He did it!_' stunned that her harebrained scheme actually paid off. '_Now I might not lose two siblings in one night,_' and kept her full focus on Ichigo.

The Beast punched at Ichigo, who raised his sword, with one hand, the flat side towards The Beast, pointing at the ground and let the massive fist collide with it. He didn't move an inch. Mirajane's eyes widened in shock and, to her surprise, fear at the strength that would have been needed in order to block that attack, let alone not even having to move to do it. The Beast laid down a barrage of punches and kicks on Ichigo, who merely moved his sword to effortlessly block each blow. When he saw The Beast about to run off, scared of the clearly more powerful fighter due, in large part, because Ichigo seemed happy to wait for something. When The Beast had turned to flee, Ichigo sped over to him and jumped so he was level with The Beast's neck and slammed the pommel of his sword into its neck, knocking it out. As The Beast crashed to the ground, smashing all of the trees in its way, it shrank as it transformed back into Elfman, The Beast no longer able to exert its will over the mage.

Mirajane stumbled to where Ichigo was standing and said, "Thank you…uh…I don't think you told me your name."

Ichigo thought back to their conversation and said, "You're right! My name is Ichigo Kurosaki, and you are…?"

"Mirajane. Mirajane Strauss and the one on the ground there is my brother, Elfman Strauss. We belong to the Guild Fairy Tail."

"You said something about a Guild before. What exactly _is_ that?"

"You…really don't know?"

"I wouldn't be asking if I did."

"I suppose…a guild is many things to many people, but for many of us in Fairy Tail, it can be like a surrogate family. Overall, though, there are three different types of Guild, there are Legal Guilds, Independent Guilds and Dark Guilds. Legal Guilds, or Official Guilds, are Guilds that have been approved and registered by the Magic Council. The Official Guilds operate within the boundaries set by the Magic Council that governs the use and practice of Magic throughout Fiore. Dark Guilds are not approved by the Magic Council. Most Dark Guild's believe that the mages within Official Guild's limit themselves, and their freedom, by obeying the rules that the Magic Council sets out."

"Maybe I should join a Dark Guild then."

"Why in the world would you want to do a thing like _that?!_" Mirajane demanded, outraged at the mere thought of anyone doing such a thing.

"Well, they are kind of like freedom fighters, right?"

"No."

"No?"

"Dark Guilds are basically criminal organizations that steal and commit murder for hire in order to get by."

"Oh…then that's not happening."

"Good. Independent Guilds are different again."

"How so?"

"While it is true that, similar to a Dark Guild, they are not recognised by the council, they are not treated as criminal organisations and are free to do…basically whatever they want as long as the council doesn't disapprove of them and list them as a Dark Guild."

"Alright. So, any suggestions on what to do in the meantime?" Ichigo asked.

"Why not come to Fairy Tail with me?"

"Fairy Tail? Why? I'm not even sure that I want to join a guild at all yet. I _did _just get here after all."

"You don't have to join right away. Besides, you need some place to stay for a while and the Master of Fairy Tail is always willing to leave the door open for those in need."

"Alright then, sure, I'll come and check this Fairy Tail place out for now."

"Thanks. Can I get you to do something for me in the meantime though?"

"What?"

"I'm…kind of exhausted right now, so I'll need you to carry Elfman for me for a while."

"Uhh…alright…" Ichigo said, "Why?"

"I need to go and retrieve my sister's body."

"Her body? Then…"

"Elfman hit her when he was out of control. I can't bring myself to believe that there's any hope of her being alive now," Mirajane said, her grief written on her face.

"Alright," Ichigo sombrely said, understanding the feelings that Mirajane must be feeling, having undergone much the same himself when he was half Mirajane's age. Ichigo followed behind Mirajane as she searched for her sister's body, of whom he didn't yet know the name. He soon found out though when they found the body of the young, silver haired female and his new friend Mirajane started crying 'Lisanna' to the heavens.


	2. Dimension Travellers

–A few days later the three mages(1) arrived at Fairy Tail with a dead ally in tow. The guild lost all of its life as Lisanna was the only one that managed to build a bridge between the two female dragons of their Guild. A funeral was held that was attended by all of the Fairy Tail mages, Ichigo attended, even though he still hadn't joined the Guild, despite being given free access to all of the Guild's facilities in exchange for working the bar.

Makarov waited a week to let Mirajane grieve for her lost sister before calling her into his office. When she was in the office she asked, "What seems to be the problem, Master?"

"I know it's only been a week, but I need you to give me a report on your mission…if you're feeling up to it."

"I see," Mirajane said, her voice lacking its normal punkish attitude.

Makarov thought, '_She's still grieving for her sister. It's understandable all things considered, but I'll have to restrict her from any further missions for a while yet._'

"I don't really feel like it, but I suppose that it has to be done some time, right?"

"Indeed," Makarov said, playing with his moustache.

"Very well then," Mirajane said, "as you know I took the S-Class mission to capture or defeat the monster that had been terrorising the forest around Maztenka town, thereby affecting its primary source of economic income, tourism. On the mission I sent Lisanna away to make sure that there was no one in the vicinity that could be hurt should the fight extend to nearby towns. While she was away I engaged the monster. It somehow managed to knock me out. It couldn't have been for much more than a minute, but when I woke up I saw Elfman attempt a Full Body Take Over on the monster. I assume that it was because there was no other option available. Whatever the case the beast was too strong for Elfman to properly contain and he lost control. Lisanna…" Mirajane sobbed before gulping down her pain in order to continue her report. "Lisanna…ignored my orders and tried reasoning with the beast. It didn't' work and Lisanna was backhanded into a mountain. From what I gather Elfman doesn't remember what he did when he was transformed so, if possible, I'd rather him not know about what he did."

Makarov played with his moustache and considered Mirajane's request. He said, "I'll consider it. However if it is in the best interest of him or the guild then I _will_ tell him."

"It's your decision of course," Mirajane said before she continued her report, "when Elfman was about to finish _me_ off Ichigo's hollow form separated from him and crashed into Elfman, knocking them away from both Ichigo and me."

Makarov asked, "Hollow form?"

"You'd have to ask him about it, I don't really understand it myself."

"I see," Makarov said resolving to get Ichigo in his office as soon as Mira had left.

"Any way, this Hollow-Ichigo fought against the beast. It was probably unintentional, but it gave me enough time for me to transfer my knowledge of Take Over Magic to Ichigo as he was the only one that 'knew' the hollow well enough to do it. I had hoped that by doing so he would be able to put an end to Elfman's suffering. After he did we started to search for…for…" Mirajane broke down, sobbing far too much to continue.

"Alright," Makarov said, "I think that I can put the rest together myself."

"Than…kyou…mas…tah" Mirajane said through her sobs, leaving Makarov's office after thanking her pseudo-father.

Once Mirajane had left his office Makarov sighed and said to himself, "Well, I knew it wasn't always going to be easy when I took this job. Now…I guess I should get confirmation on her report before I can try to get to the bottom of this 'Hollow' business. Elfman apparently can't confirm what happened thanks to this Take Over fiasco, so I suppose that Ichigo will have to do. I just hope that he doesn't mind too much," knowing that Ichigo wasn't actually a member of his guild and, as such was not compelled to do anything he said, but over the last week or so he had seemed to be at least somewhat reasonable to deal with. With that decided Makarov poked his head around the door and called out, "Kurosaki, come here a minute will you?"

"Yeah, sure," Ichigo said, "Just let me finish your sauerkraut first."

"Okay," Makarov said, going back to his desk to fill out the paperwork for the mission that came in thanks to Gildarts running into just about every building in a town in Desierto. As he started to read the report he felt a shiver run down his spine. By the time Ichigo entered with Makarov's meal the Guild Master was a shivering mess.

As Ichigo set Makarov's meal in front of him he asked, "What seems to be the problem?"

Makarov, realising that he was no longer alone, immediately stopped shaking and calmly said, "It's just another mission report, nothing much really."

"I see," Ichigo said, grabbing the report from out of Makarov's hands and skimmed through it. He exclaimed, "How is this _just_ another mission report?" shocked by what he read. "He destroyed every building of the town!"

"I know. You just came here so you wouldn't know that this is actually pretty small in comparison to some of the things that he's done in the past."

"Small? What the hell has he done?"

"Believe me when I tell you that you _really_ do _not_ want to know."

"Well, if you say so," Ichigo said, accepting the Guild Master's words.

"But speaking of your recent arrival…"

"You want to know what I plan to do, right?"

"Well, since you _are_ working here, why don't you join Fairy Tail?"

"I don't know…maybe…"

"Well, you don't have to right away, just give it some thought."

"Alright, but why did you want me to come in here?"

Well, there are a few reasons, but the first is about Mirajane's last mission."

"Okay, what do you want to know?"

"I'd like to know your take on what happened."

"Okay, so where do I start?"

"The beginning is always a good point to start a story at."

Ichigo asked, "The beginning? From when I arrived in this world, or how I got here?"

"How about we start in your world?"

"Alright, what do you want to know?"

"How about telling me exactly what a 'Hollow' is?"

"Ah. Well then I'd better start at soul basics #101."

"Soul basics?"

"Yeah. I don't know how it is in this world, but, in mine normal humans are known collectively as Pluses while they are alive."

Makarov asked, "Pluses?"

"Yeah, I know; strange, right?"

"Indeed."

"Well when a plus dies it crosses over to a different…we'll call it a realm, called Soul Society. However some spirits are unable to cross over by themselves due to something that they have been unable to do, a grudge or even some strange personal defect that is interfering with them to such an extent that they are unable to leave the living world. Are you with me so far?"

"Kind of, continue."

"Alright. Now, if these spirits fail to crossover at some point they will lose all hope and degenerate into mindless beasts that eat and steal the souls of humans, both alive and dead, in order to fill the void of the heart that they lost when they became a hollow. There is a great deal more to them than that, but that will do for now."

"Alright, so how did one of these dead souls enter _you_?"

"I'll get to that. So far I've told you of two states that a soul can be, right?"

"Indeed."

"Well, there is another soul state."

"A third?"

"Yes. The third state is that of a Shinigami."

"A God of Death?"

"Yeah. Shinigami assist spirits to cross over if they are unable to cross over by themselves. Forcefully if need be. They also actively protect the living world by destroying hollows."

"What? But if a hollow is a human, then…"

"Shinigami use a sword called a Zanpakutō to cleanse the hollow of its transgressions and return it to the great cycle."

"The…"

"First you are born, spend your life living as you will. Second, you die and go to Soul Society before dying there and being reborn in the human world, and so on and so forth."

"I see. So, can you see any spirits now?"

"No, it's not exactly a common occurrence," Ichigo said.

"I see. Alright then, how about how a hollow got stuck inside you?"

"That, I'm not quite sure. All I know is that at one point I was run through the…collection point I guess, where a person's reiatsu is stored. Reiatsu is the stuff that we use for our abilities. It exists within all living things and the atmosphere."

"I see. Well this…reiatsu…from your world seems to be synonymous with Eternano. I suppose that is why it was possible for Mirajane to transfer her magic to you."

"I guess. I've never really been one to think things through beforehand."

"What do you mean?"

"If something needs to be done, then I'll do it. End of story."

"I see," Makarov said, "if that's the case then you'll find it rather easy to get along with most of the mages in this Guild."

"I told you that I…"

"I know, I know," Makarov said. "It's merely an observation. Now, back to how you got this hollow in you."

"Well, like I said, I don't know how it came to be inside me, as far as I'm aware something went wrong with the method that Urahara-san used to return my Shinigami powers to me. At any rate, even if I did have them at that point I didn't really know about them myself until I was more or less half-dead fighting against the guy that cut me off from my powers."

"You fought the same guy twice?"

"Yeah. It's a long story that doesn't have much to do with the matter at hand. After my allies and I won the day the hollow's power increased and he started to try to take over my body for itself. Eventually I ended up teaming up with a bunch of similarly afflicted Shinigami and learned how to control the hollow's power. It took me a while to perfect the method, but eventually I did and defeated my strongest foe, up to that point anyway, which brings us to how I got to this world."

"Oh?" Makarov said, surprised that Ichigo found a way to segue into the final subject that he wished to discuss with the orange haired ex-Shinigami.

"After my injuries had healed from the fight that I was just telling you about, the person that had healed me got taken away by the enemy, so I charged off to save her. I was completely outmatched, even using my hollow powers to their full extent, at least to my knowledge at the time. I was on the edge of death when I heard the person that had healed me call out for help and tried everything I could in order to do so."

"Even when you knew you had little to no chance of victory?"

"I thought I told you. If there's something to be done, I'll do it."

"Alright, please continue."

"Very well; at that point my inner hollow somehow managed to resurface, stronger than ever. It took over my body and easily equalled, or maybe even surpassed, the guy I was fighting. Both my enemy and, I suppose I can't really keep on denying that the hollow was part of me, so I'll say my enemy and _I_ shot out our most powerful ranged attack at each other, which, somehow, when they exploded against each other, managed to suck me into the epicentre and, voila, here I am. Though I can't really explain how it happened, I seem to have aged about two years, except it felt like I emerged almost as soon as I entered that…void."

"I see."

"There is one other thing I can't quite fit my head around. Maybe you can help me understand it."

"I'll try. What is the matter?"

"Well…to fight as a shinigami I need to leave my body behind, so…"

"I se…wait WHAT!?"

"Well, shinigami are all dead, right?"

"I guess when you look at it like that, it does make sense. But if that's the case then..."

"Why do I have a proper, living, body now?"

"That…I have no idea. However I do know someone that might be able to enlighten us about it, if you'd let me take you to her that is."

"Yeah sure, it's better for me to know everything about what I can do here before I make any further decisions about my future."

"Indeed it is, although there is a bit of a problem with this person."

"What's that?"

"She doesn't really like humans all that much."

"She doesn't lik… That makes no sense."

"I know, but try telling her that."

"Alright, so when do we see her?"

"Is tomorrow soon enough for you?"

"That'll be fine," Ichigo agreed. With that decided Ichigo left Makarov's office and returned to tend the bar.

XXXXX

The next day Ichigo was woken up off of the bench that he was using as a bed by Makarov, even earlier than he had been getting up to serve at the bar. He groaned before saying, "Five more minutes Yuzu," turning over to go back to sleep.

Makarov shouted, "I'M NOT YUZU!" karate-chopping Ichigo on his head with an enlarged arm.

Ichigo, smarting from the hit, jumped up, rubbing his head. He remembered where he was and said, "OH! Sorry about that ol' man. What is it?"

"It's time to see that person that I was telling you about yesterday."

"Oh, right. Just give me a minute and I'll be right with you."

"Why?" Makarov asked, noting that Ichigo _really_ needed some more clothes.

"Oh," Ichigo said. "Good point. Alright, where are we going?"

"An old friend of mine that is skilled with various medicinal magic's that lives in the East Magnolia Forest."

"Okay," Ichigo said, leaving the bar behind Makarov.

XXXXX

Two hours later Ichigo and Makarov arrived at the tree that Porlyusica resided in. Makarov knocked on the door and the two waited for an answer. After a few seconds they heard, "Who is it?!" from behind the door.

Makarov said, "It's me."

"Oh. It's you," Porlyusica said, opening the door and stepping aside to let them in. "What is it this time?" she frowned at Ichigo as he entered behind Makarov, sensing something otherworldly about him.

"There's a problem with this…"

"Who are you, and where did you come from?" Porlyusica interrupted, getting straight to the point.

"My name's Ichigo Kurosaki and I'm from a place called Earth."

"Don't you mean Earth_land_?"

"No," Ichigo stated.

Makarov said, "Well, I'll leave you two at it," and got up to leave.

Porlyusica said, "Oh no you don't. You're going to stick around to hear what I have to say so that you don't make things worse for the boy." Makarov gulped before sitting back down.

"Well, I guess we should get the obvious out of the way first."

"Please do."

"The Earth I come from is in a completely different realm from this one." Ichigo waited for the pink haired mage to say something. She didn't. He continued, "Like I told Makarov yesterday, the earth that I'm from doesn't have magic in it." Porlyusica raised her right eyebrow. "Well…it does, just not how you know it."

"What do you mean?"

"It's more about trickery and sleight of hand than granting people abilities otherwise impossible to achieve."

"I see."

"What we _do_ have is something called Reishi and Reiatsu."

"Which are?"

"Every living being has some level of Reiryoku present within them. However there are some people that can use that Reiryoku to produce various abilities. So I would say that Reiryoku is synonymous with your magical power. A similar substance exists within the atmosphere, albeit at differing amounts."

"What do you mean?"

"There is less Reishi in a city then there is in a forest."

Porlyusica asked, "Does this Reishi substance enter into your bodies?"

"Yes. It also assists in regenerating the Reiryoku in beings of greater spiritual awareness." Porlyusica frowned at the term used. Ichigo, seeing the reaction said, "I'll get to that momentarily." Porlyusica's face returned to its normal, contemplative, state. "Those that are spiritually aware can see the spirits of those that have died but are yet to move on. They are also the only ones that have the ability to produce the various abilities that I was talking about before."

"I see," Porlyusica said, "and are there many of these spiritually aware people on your world?"

"No. I would say that an upper limit would be one in ten thousand."

"I see." Porlyusica thought, '_Even rarer than those that can use magic._'

"The problem that we are currently pressed with though is the types of beings that can use their Reiryoku in such a way."

"Why is that?"

"There are four types of being that can use their Reiryoku to produce various abilities. One is humans, who somehow gain the ability to do something. The second is another human they are the Quincy, a…I'll call them a race...of being that combine their own Reiryoku and the Reishi in the atmosphere to use their abilities. Those are fine in and of themselves. But then there's those like me."

"So, finally getting to the point are we?"

"Sorry, but I thought it would be better for you to have some background info. Makarov here told me that you were skilled in the medicinal arts and, from my experience, it's better to tell the doctor too much than not enough."

"Very well then," Porlyusica said, glad at the respect being given to her.

"I am a being known as a Shinigami, or God of Death. The shinigami are beings that assist souls stuck in the material world to pass on to the next plane of existence."

"Okay. I think I can see where this is going. Since these Shinigami help souls of the dead move on, they must therefore have been 'there' themselves, wherever 'there' is, which means that they must be dead themselves. Am I close?"

"That's exactly right. But there is one slight hitch."

"What do you mean?"

"_I_ haven't died yet."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm still alive in the living world."

"But how?"

"I don't really know how myself, but somehow I have had Shinigami powers since my birth. They did however require another Shinigami's powers to awaken my own. But that still isn't the problem."

"Then what is?"

"When I was transported here, and I still can't imagine how it happened, I was fighting against a member of the fourth race of spiritually aware beings. Unfortunately, to be able to use my shinigami powers I need to leave my body."

"Then if that's the case…"

"Why do I have a body now?"

Makarov said, "Actually, there's another, more pressing issue in play here."

Ichigo and Porlyusica looked at Makarov. Porlyusica asked, "And what would that be exactly?"

"Mirajane was in a bad situation and transferred her Take Over knowledge to Ichigo."

"Wait…so he…" Makarov nodded. Porlyusica closed her eyes and thought, '_If that's the case then his Reiryoku must be either the same, or at least close enough, to our Magic in order for him to be able to use magic. Although Take Over magic binds the powers of a creature to the mage, so…' _Porlyusica opened her eyes and said, "I don't want you using that magic on another creature if you can help it."

"What do you mean?"

"Take Over magic allows you the use of the powers of form of a creature you have subdued and bound to your soul. It's bad enough that you have bound a creature from this world to your soul, who knows what would happen if you bound more to it."

"What are you?"

"If you leave your body in order to fight, that would logically mean that you are essentially a soul yourself, correct?"

"That's right."

"Then what do you think would happen if you bound multiple beings to that body?"

"I've got no idea."

"Neither do I, which should scare you. What I do know, is that if you bind any more creatures to your soul you will not be able to travel back to your world."

"What do you…"

"Judging from the level of your magical power it would likely be relatively easy for you to complete at least B-Rank missions. Unfortunately, with higher ranking missions, the danger increases exponentially."

"Which means tougher opponents, right?"

"Indeed. It also means that you are more likely to have to bind more creatures to your soul. There are likely tougher creatures on this world than on your own due to the existence of magic."

"Okay."

"If, as I suspect, when you travel back to your world, with those tougher creatures attached to you, said creatures would be, essentially, set free. And without magic you and the other humans of your world would face almost certain annihilation."

"I see," Ichigo said. "I shall take that into consideration."

"You had better," Porlyusica said, "take it from one dimension traveller to another."

"You are…"

"As Makarov already knows, I'm from a dimension known as Edolas, which is, essentially, a mirror reflection of this one. I grew too attached to this world and have no longer have any desire to leave it whatsoever."

"I see. But there is one thing that you seem to be misinterpreting."

"Oh?"

"The creature that I used Take Over on had already been a part of me."

"A…how?"

"It's a long story, but the short version of it is that I gained it when I was regaining my shinigami powers. I had to beat it to use its powers of my own will before it grew even more powerful than it was before. It took complete control of my body before I was sent here."

"If that were the case then why did you need to use Take Over on it?"

"When we were ejected from the void, we were somehow separated, don't ask me how or why."

'_I see. If that's the case then he must have come here for some purpose. What that purpose could be only time will tell._' "It could be that having a real body in this dimension precludes the possession of a split soul. If that is the case then it would likely have been a defence mechanism of your subconscious self."

"Ookay," Ichigo said, not really getting the complexities of it. "So essentially I ejected the problem myself?"

"Indeed."

"Okay, so what now?"

"Like I said before, I suggest not Taking Over any more creatures than that which you currently possess. That means that you will need some other way of protecting yourself. Of course, that is only if you truly desire to go back to your world."

"I have friends there in a desperate situation."

"Hmm…" Porlyusica said, contemplating everything that he had told her. "Can I assume that you aged somewhat during your time in…the void…was it?"

"Well, that's what I'm calling it anyway," Ichigo said, nodding as he did so.

"Then I'm sorry, but in all likelihood your friends have been in that situation for however long it was that you were in that void."

"Then…" Ichigo dropped to his knees, tears running down his face and onto Porlyusica's floor.

"I know you're probably not going to want to hear this, but even if you _do_ somehow manage to go back to your world, and time hasn't passed for them, the friends of which you speak shall not have aged, and you shall."

Ichigo closed his eyes and, after a while, said, "Makarov."

"Yes?" Makarov said, allowing Ichigo to continue.

"Can you find everything you can about magic that lets you travel through dimensional portals?"

"I could, but…"

"It doesn't matter how. Just do it."

"Alright, if you insist."

"But if it takes more than five years then I want you to stop looking."

"Five years? Why such a time frame?"

"If Porlyusica-san is correct, then either way I won't want to go back."

"Why?"

"My friends will either have been killed, or I shall have aged. In either case, I wouldn't be able to see them anymore. I don't know about you, but I would rather remember them as they had been, rather than live on like that."

"I see," Makarov said, thinking, '_This kid…_'

"If that's all," Porlyusica said, "then get out!" grabbing a broom. She used it to force both male mages out of her home.

On their way back to the Guild Hall Ichigo commented, "She's…rather…"

"Yes," Makarov agreed, having heard the sentiment time and again, whenever he first brought any new Fairy Tail member to see his old friend. "So, have you given any thought to…"

"OH come ON!" Ichigo said, exasperated by Makarov's incessant attempts to recruit him. "It's hasn't even been a day since you…wait…no, not even that!" then he heard the old man chuckling, causing his face to fall into the scowl that came so easily to him when he was annoyed.

"At any rate, you really do need to train with that form of yours."

"Train? Can't I just…" Makarov raised his eyebrow. "But I just beat Elfman as soon as I took it over."

"Maybe so, but can you say that you could use its full capabilities?"

"Well…okay, I take your point. Know anywhere I can go to train?"

"Yeah, there's a brilliant clearing about half an hour into the forest west of Magnolia."

Ichigo thought, '_Man these Fairy Tail guys like forests._' The two then returned to the bar to set up for the day.

XXXXXX

A/N

(1) Since Ichigo can use Take Over I shall be referring to him as a Mage from here on out.


	3. Amelia

Halfway through the week Ichigo finally got paid for working at the bar and asked directions to a clothes store. Less than an hour later he emerged from a clothing store, wearing a black polo shirt, black jeans along with a blood red, short-sleeved jacket, which had a high collar, hemmed in yellow along with a pair of gloves that reached halfway up his forearm and knee-high boots. He was using two identical red belts that were edged in silver.

A week later Ichigo finally filled in his application to register as a mage and handed it to Makarov to send to wherever it needed to be sent(Era). When she heard about what Ichigo was planning, Mirajane offered to take over at the bar for the afternoons and then share the night shift. So, at twelve, he headed to the clearing that he had been visiting every day since he had been taken to Porlyusica's house.

When he got there he sighed and said to himself, "Right, now let's do this. Take Over: Hollow Soul," causing two magic circles to form around his mid-section before they moved over his body. When the glow of the magic circles had disappeared Ichigo was standing in the clearing in a. Strapped to his waist was a chokutō with a red tuft separating the hilt and the blade; it also possessed a red katana-style hilt wrapping and a red tassel attached to the end of the hilt. The clothes weren't the only thing that had changed however. He had now gained a further ten centimetres in height, along with his sclera turning black.

A voice came through the trees, saying, "So, it is true."

Ichigo frowned and asked, "Huhh?" looking in the direction the voice had come from."

The voice continued as it got closer, "You are in violation of the laws governing the use of magic, clause one, subsection a: Any person that can use magic must register as a mage with the Magic Council."

"I just put my application in," Ichigo said.

"Irrelevant," said the owner of the voice, a beauty the same age as Ichigo himself(1). She had vibrant, emerald green, hair in a high ponytail and blue eyes. She wearing a light blue, high-collared, dress, that had elbow-length sleeves, over a dark blue underdress that flared out at her hips, stopping halfway down her thighs, letting a small section of her black tights be revealed before they were covered by her white thigh-high boots that had a blue design on the knees that stretched down to the top of her foot. She was wearing fingerless, elbow-length, dark blue gloves. She was also wearing a dark blue cape, closed by twin emerald clasps, which signified her allegiance to the Magic Council.

"Who are you anyway?" Ichigo demanded.

"Amelia, Amelia Hikreux. Your name doesn't matter," Amelia said as the thirty-odd troops that she was commander of marched in behind her, more for intimidation than for any practical purpose.

"Alright Amelia, what is it you want with me?"

"You are under arrest and will be tried by the Magic Council at Era."

"So what'll happen then?"

"You will be found guilty and be locked away in the Erazza Gaol for twice your current life span."

"Do you _seriously_ think that I'll just consent to that?" Ichigo said, starting to draw his sword.

"Consent is unnecessary," Amelia said. She extended her hand before saying, "Requip: Ice Archer." A magic circle formed in front of her hand, splitting in two, forming a bow that she took hold of as soon as the grip had formed. At either end of the handle a sapphire appeared, breaking out into three wavy, sea blue, spiked extensions, the middle of which was longer, and bigger than the other two, which were identical in every way. From the middle one the arms of the bow extended out, the bowstring forming about ten centimetre's away from the tips of the bow(2). As the bow formed in Amelia's hands a magic circle flowed over them, changing the gloves she was wearing for blue, full-fingered, ones the same colour as the bow.

As Amelia formed her weapon Ichigo thought, '_There's magic that can generate a weapon? That'd be handy._'

Amelia drew back her bow as soon as it had finished forming, which generated a blue arrow that ended in a sapphire, with five curved extensions, similar in design to the three on the bow, extending out of it. "Alright Ichigo. I shall give you one chance to come with me peacefully, or I'll be forced to shoot."

"Puh-leeze, as if you could hit me anyway."

One of Amelia's troops commented to his friend, "He's really done it now."

"Yeah," his friend said, "the captain hates being underestimated more than anything else, even more than the Commander."

"Which is saying a lot."

Amelia, ignoring her subordinate's chatter, released the generated arrow at Ichigo, redrawing her bow, generating another arrow as soon as she had let go. Ichigo batted the arrow aside with the chokutō that he had drawn as Amelia Requipped her bow. When he had done so he looked at the blade, curious as to the effect of the arrow; to his surprise he saw that there was actually ice left on it from where it had come into contact with the arrow. He frowned at the bow as he thought, '_That thing's more dangerous than it looks._' Then he saw the change to Amelia's gloves. He said, "That thing's pretty strong Amelia."

"What's wrong with you?" Amelia exclaimed, shocked that someone would actually take the time to compliment her weapon choice during a fight.

"Isn't it a bit _too_ strong though?"

Amelia's eyes widened for half a second as she thought, '_He couldn't…_' then she calmly asked, "What do you mean?"

"I don't know how you did it, but somehow you changed your gloves at the same time that you created that bow."

'_He noticed it?_' "I don't know what you're talking about," Amelia bluffed.

"Why lie?" Ichigo asked. "I would say that the reason that you changed your gloves is because of the bow."

"Why would you think that?"

"That bow shot an arrow that actually managed to freeze my blade, at least slightly anyway. That means that the arrow was at least minus forty-eight degrees. Far too cold for a human to hold without some sort of protection, which means those gloves are designed solely to protect you from your weapon."

"Well, you're half right anyway."

"Half right?" Ichigo asked.

"I use Requip: The Archer, a magic that lets me switch out my weapons and gloves in order to fight. I must admit, I never thought I'd see a mage like you in Fairy Tail."

"Yeesh, I don't know who you're talking to, but I _haven't_ joined any guild."

"It's a shame that you're about to be arrested, the Rune Knights could use someone like you," Amelia said, before releasing two arrows at Ichigo.

Ichigo made a sound of disapproval before moving at a speed that would not normally be achievable to a human, before slashing down at Amelia, who raised her bow to defend against Ichigo's strike. She was mostly successful, but for a small crack where his blade came in contact with it. Ichigo frowned as Amelia jumped back, firing an arrow at him, which he dodged before closing in on her once again, hitting the bow in the exact same spot again, this time though he spun as soon as he made contact and hit it again from the other side, level with the previous two strikes. Amelia, defending against the second one, used the power of the strike to increase the distance between them, leading Ichigo away from her troops. Ichigo, tired of following her, stopped and asked, "Why are you leading me away from your troops?"

Amelia stopped where she was and said, "There is no guarantee that you would not involve my men in an attempt to get away."

"I wouldn't do something like that."

"I agree that it is unlikely, given your actions thus far, however it has been known to happen to other squads. As such I prefer not to take on my missions alone."

"I see. Well then, isn't this far enough?"

"True," Amelia said, raising her bow and firing two arrows at Ichigo, one after the other, before firing a third at the position that she deduced that he would be at once he avoided her arrows based on his movements thus far.

Ichigo ducked under the two arrows before he ran straight at Amelia, noticing the arrow, just before it would have hit him. To Amelia's shock Ichigo disappeared from her sight, appearing above her and slashing down at her. She raised her bow to defend against his strike again. Ichigo, seeing what she was doing, put more strength behind his strike and, before he hit it, said, "One thing Amelia…"

"What?"

"When up against a sword, don't defend…"

"What do you…" Amelia started to ask before Ichigo's sword clashed with her bow once more, this time shattering it.

"…deflect."

Amelia's face morphed from the calm, calculating, one that she had before into one of rage as she drew upon her not inconsiderable amount of magic power and manifested as flecks of electricity sparking around her body as she said, "Requip: Lightning Ranger," changing out her bow and, this time, her entire outfit. This time the bow was a yellow one that seemed to Ichigo to be pure electricity, except for the fact that it was somehow maintaining its shape of two lightning bolt shaped arms connected together by a handle. The bowstring was also made of lightning. She was now wearing a tight-fit pair of yellow pants, and mustard coloured knee-high, lace-up, boots the same colour as the full-fingered gloves that reached halfway up her forearm. She was wearing a yellow coloured hooded t-shirt and a leather vest the same colour as her boots and gloves.

When Amelia drew the bow the bowstring stretched back from itself, making a triangular mass of electricity from Amelia's bow to where she was holding it. She then moved her fingers slightly so that they were on an angle pointing away from her, but not enough for an arrow to be released from it. This bow was different. Instead of the bowstring returning to its normal, rest, position, it stayed as it was, the bow firing a never-ending barrage of lightning quick, electric arrows. Ichigo managed to dodge most of them, but he couldn't dodge them all, being hit in his shoulder joints and his knees, causing him to collapse, unable to move. Amelia said, "Now, you _will_ come with me, or do you want me to end your life here?" To Amelia's shock, Ichigo started to laugh. She demanded, "Why are you laughing?"

Ichigo drew on his magical power, surrounding himself in black flames, flickering around him. He said, "Take Over: Hollow Soul," two black magic circles forming around him that disappeared once they had ascended the top of his head and reached the bottom of his feet.

"But how?!" Amelia exclaimed.

"Do you really need me to tell you?" Ichigo asked.

Amelia thought, '_He transformed from his normal state to that previous form, he called it Hollow Soul. But now he's saying that he's transformed into it from itself? If I recall, Take Over mages have the potential to only partially transform._' She said, "Partial Transformation?"

"That'd be it," Ichigo said, standing up, fully healed.

"But that's just…" Amelia said as she took in Ichigo's new form. He now had horns extending forward from the side of his head with a red stripe running the length of them. His eyes had changed once again. The irises were now yellow while the sclera was now white and his hair had grown to reach his waist. He had lost his sword, being replaced by retracted claws on his hands and feet, which now possessed an anisodactyl extension. But the starkest change that Amelia saw was that of his clothes. Now he was wearing only white, torn, hakama, which was held up by a black sash.

"Now, where were we?" Ichigo asked menacingly.

The two mages heard a booming voice echo around them, saying, "Stop this nonsense NOW!"

Amelia demanded, "Who is it?" looking at Ichigo.

Ichigo said, "Hell if I know."

The owner of the voice, seeing the two calming down somewhat, stepped forward. It was Makarov. He said, "Now that the pair of you are calmer, would you mind telling me what the problem is?"

"Sure," Ichigo said, "This madwoman is trying to tell me to go quietly to get locked up for, essentially, the rest of my life."

Makarov looked at Amelia and said, "Explain."

"He's a practicing mage that is not registered by the Magic Council. As such he is guilty of…"

"There are extenuating circumstances involved in this matter," Makarov said before turning to face Ichigo. "That said, I would like you to go with them, at least for the time being, until all of this is sorted out."

"Well, if you say so," Ichigo said before he turned to Amelia. "Lead the way," allowing her to lead him and Makarov to where her people were.

"Uhh…" Makarov said, gaining the attention of both teenage mages. "You might want to release your magic before you get back to the other Rune Knights."

"Uh, good point," Ichigo said.

"Eek," Amelia squeaked, having had her father tear her a new one over the same thing in the past.

Both mages returned to the way that they normally looked just before they reached the clearing that the Rune Knights were still standing in. Her second in command came up to her and asked, "So, is everything alright Sir?"

Amelia sighed and said, "For the last time Riley, you don't need to call me 'Sir'."

"Disregarding the fact that I would be punished if I didn't; to fail to do so would show disrespect, Sir."

Amelia sighed and said, "Now see here, we grew up togeth…" she stopped short as her eyes widened in horror as Ichigo fell to the ground. She rushed to his side and almost shrieked, "Ichigo!" before looking up. She saw a man standing where Ichigo had fallen and frowned as she angrily demanded, "What did you do?" then she saw the handcuffs on Ichigo. She yelled, "You fool! Get those things off him NOW!" unable to remove them herself as only the person that put the cuffs on a person could take them off.

"But why? It's standard procedure to…"

"It's an _order,_" Amelia said, using a term that she hadn't used before when dealing with her men.

"Y-Yes Sir!" the man said, bending down to release Ichigo from the cuffs. Once they were gone the man asked, "Just out of curiosity Sir," Amelia nodded, allowing him to continue. "Why…?" trailing off, leaving Amelia to fill in the blanks.

"A if a mage has a great amount of magical power, then their magical power gets tied in with their life force. Those cuffs are fine for use on lesser mages, but even you should be able to tell that Ichigo is no ordinary mage."

"Well…that's true."

Amelia turned to Makarov and said, "I apologise Guild Master Dreyar, my subordinate did not…"

"That's fine. It's a mistake that anybody could make. Besides, I don't want to make a big deal about it, thanks to Gildarts' last mission we're about to get another complaint anyway."

"I thank you," Amelia said, turning back to her troops. "Two of you, make a stretcher, we're taking Ichigo back to our Magnolia Base to allow him to rest up before we take him to Era."

XXXXXXX

A/N

(1) Ichigo aged roughly two years in the void, making him 17

(2) magic_bows_set_1_by_rittik_designs-d6yekwt


	4. General Hikreux

A/N

I had been hoping to avoid having to do this in this story, but since there seem to have been some issues raised with the previous chapters…

Eeh

1. Yes. Mages really are that durable, and The Beast was a demon created by Zeref. As such it would have been in the same league as Deliora, which was damned near indestructible.

2. I wouldn't say that Makarov is on par with Yamamoto as it is impossible to _compare_ power levels between a manga that has definitive different levels of power and one that only cared about how stupidly overpowered that it can make a character.

3. After his training in the Dangai Ichigo discarded his reiatsu in order to change it all into the strength required to fight against a transcendental Aizen, so stating such is incorrect to begin with. But you compounded your inaccuracies by stating that that is synonymous with the Final Getsuga Tensho

peddy-kun

Where did he turn 16? As far as I'm aware he was 15 throughout the whole pre-time skip section and 17 afterwards. Even if he was, I just wanted him the same age as Mirajane and Erza.

XXXXXXX

The next day, after Ichigo woke up, shocking the doctors that were looking after him, he was taken to Amelia and they, and her men, set off to Era. It took them about five hours to get there. When they reached the council gates a man came out of a smaller, man-sized, gate to talk to them. Before the official could begin talking, Amelia said, "We are bringing in the orange haired mage in to undergo questioning."

"Alright, hmm…" the official said, "I'm sorry. But my schedule indicates that you should have arrived last night at the latest."

"Yes, and we would have had one of my subordinates done something rather stupid that he has since repented, and been forgiven, for."

"Very well then," the official said, not wanting to have to do any more paperwork than what Amelia's late arrival had already caused him. The official stepped back inside and pressed a button, activating mechanisms that allowed the gate to be opened.

When Amelia and her troops had entered the citadel Amelia led Ichigo to a room and opened the door before stepping aside. She said, "Ichigo. You'll need to wait in here while I deal with some formalities. There are bathing facilities within, which I suggest you make use of…" alluding to the fact that he hadn't had a shower for at least twenty-four hours. "…after which you shall need to put on some of the clothes in…"

She was cut off before she could finish speaking by someone saying, "Amelia!" Amelia cringed. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm…"

"It doesn't matter," a brown haired, bearded, man said. He was wearing ornate, white, plate armour laden with intricate golden designs over a blue coat that had numerous tassels hanging off the bottom. Ichigo could see that he was wearing brown pants under He was holding an equally ornate, jewel-encrusted trident that had, what appeared to be, two short swords for its outer prongs(1).

Ichigo said, "Who the hell are you?"

The man's face scrunched up in anger as he turned to the man next to him and said, "Take care of him." The man then grabbed Amelia's arm and led her away.

When they had left Ichigo asked, "What's that guy's problem?"

The man that he had been left with sighed and said, "General Hikreux has…difficulties…dealing with Amelia."

"General Hi…"

"Her father," the man, said as Ichigo turned to look at him for the first time. He was a tall man with long hair that was white, despite being barely thirty. He was wearing a sky blue short-sleeved business shirt and black tie under an emerald green coat that had the Rune Knight crest emblazoned on the shoulder, the same colour as the pants that were tucked into his knee-high, black metal, boots. He was also wearing black metal gloves that reached halfway up his forearm, though Ichigo couldn't tell as they were under the coat(2). The man then said, "Come," expecting Ichigo to follow him, which, not knowing any better, he did.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, Amelia had been dragged to the courtyard by her father, who had an arming sword with him. It had a blue metal hilt wrapped in blue leather with wings for the crossguard. In the centre of the crossguard a sapphire was embedded that was inscribed with the Rune Knight crest. Inside the scabbard the sword had a metal cover over the ricasso. He flung it at her. He said, "Draw it."

"Why should I?" Amelia demanded.

Not answering her question, her father said, "Requip: Power Crusader," a blue magic circle appearing around his waist before it split into two, one rising above his head, one descending to his feet. When they disappeared his armour had changed to a more lightweight set consisting of white leather pants with a matching white skivvy with a hardened, light grey, leather vest. He also had matching light grey leather gloves and knee-high boots. He had also switched out his ornate trident for a more practical halberd with a golden axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft with a hook on the reverse side of the axe blade. At the base of the shaft there is a bladed extension adding another foot to the total length. He also had a Katzbalger in a scabbard at his hip.

Amelia thought, '_Oh shit!_' and quickly slid the sheathe from her sword, letting it fly to the side before stepping back and bringing her sword around to deflect her father's lunge as it was too close to avoid completely. "Why are you…" Amelia said, knowing that her father wouldn't answer, but hoping for one anyway. Her father lunged at her again and again at increasing speeds until she could no longer simply dodge. So she started to duck as soon as her father started to bring his weapon forward into a lunge and brought her sword up in case she couldn't dodge it completely and spun under the lance, getting within her father's range and swung her sword up as she came out of the spin, standing up, knocking the shaft up before running forward and slashing at her father, hoping that it was enough to end it, _this_ time.

It wasn't. As soon as he felt his arms being forced up he dropped the lance, letting the weight of it jar his daughter's arms, giving him enough time to draw his sword in order to deflect the blow that he knew would be coming. As he had planned, his halberd delayed Amelia enough to draw his sword in time with enough power to not only defend against his daughter's strike, but also knock her arms up. Unlike him however, she was still holding the sword when it hit and had her arms forced up, leaving her unprotected mid-section wide open. He spun on his left foot, bringing his right knee into his daughter's stomach, knocking the wind out of her. She fell to the ground, holding her chest as she gasped for breath. Her father turned and started to walk away. Amelia managed to plead, "Why?"

Her father said, "Why do you think?" and continued to walk away.

Amelia, still on the ground thought, '_The hell I'd know._'

Her mother had entered the courtyard just as Amelia had been defeated by a knee to her stomach and rushed to her side to find out if she was alright. She asked, "I know this may be a stupid question considering the circumstances, but are you alright?"

Amelia looked at her mother and, with tears in her eyes, asked, "Why does dad…"

Her mother sighed and said, "You know he _does_ love you."

"But why can't he just accept that I have no desire to _ever_ take up fighting with melee weapons?" Her mother sighed again. "As a matter of fact _that_," Amelia said, referring to the duel that she had just participated in, "has a large part in making me dislike them so much."

Amelia's mother saw the sword at Amelia's side and said, "This sword…"

"That?" Amelia asked. "That's the sword that dad had me fight him with. What about it?"

"It's the first sword that he had made for him. When he was about your age I think."

"It…then why would he…?"

"I've got no idea, which says a lot all things considered."

"What does it do?"

"To tell the truth, even I don't really know. In all the time that we were teamed together I can only remember him taking it on one mission."

Amelia grabbed the sword and got up. She then went to where the scabbard had fallen and picked it up before returning the sword to the scabbard and went back to her mother. She then held the sword out to her, holding it where the centre of the blade would be and said, "Here, can you please return it to dad for me?"

Amelia's mother looked at it and said, "Hmm…no."

"What?! Why not?" Amelia exclaimed.

"If he wanted it back your father would have taken it with him."

"Well, if you say so," Amelia said, generating two magical circles around it, sending it to her pocket dimension, having no desire to carry it around the place when she didn't need to. "All that aside, could you do something for me?"

"Such as?"

"Can you check out Ichigo Kurosaki?"

"Sure, I'll look into him. Who is he?"

"He's the guy that I just brought in."

"Okay, while I do that you go and get ready to talk to the Magic Council."

"Alright. Thank you," Amelia said, leaving to have a shower and get dressed in her hated regalia.

XXXXX

Soon enough Ichigo and the man that he was following reached a door leading into a room in the middle of a circular hallway with very high ceilings. The man pushed Ichigo into the room before locking the door behind him. Inside the room there was a table at which there was only one chair. Ichigo said to himself, "Well, this is one fine mess I've gotten myself into." Not having anything better to do, he sat down in the chair and placed his arms on the armrests provided. Two bands appeared out of each of the arms and locked into place, pinning Ichigo to the chair along with matching bands on the legs of the chair. Ichigo exclaimed, "What's the big idea?" pulling against the bands.

Soon enough a woman entered the room holding a clipboard in her right hand. She was wearing tight-fit white pants and a black tailcoat with a purple cravat. She had shoulder length ochre coloured hair tied into a short ponytail. She was wearing a set of armour that covered her decently sized breasts and her ribs. It had the crest of the rune knights in the centre of the chestplate and wing-shaped pauldrons. Her left bicep had an armoured plate in the shape of multiple arrowheads held firm by a metal representation of a ribbon. Her right forearm was protected by a metal plate that had a similar design to the bicep guard, as did the plate design on the back of the gloves that she was wearing. Her right arm had a similar bicep guard although she was lacking the forearm and hand protection offered to her left hand, only having a hardened leather forearm guard that Ichigo had no doubt had some kind of magic behind it, causing Ichigo to think, '_She must be left handed._' She was wearing close-fit metal greaves and metal shoes with a high heel. Ichigo took note of the fact that the woman had a sword, a highly stylised Colichemarde(3).

The woman said, "Hello…Ichigo was it?" the woman said, sitting down on a chair that had risen up, out of the ground when she entered the room.

"Yeah. Mind telling me why I'm locked in this chair?"

"No, not at all. My husband takes issue with just about everything my daughter does. So he would have done this anyway."

"He…"

"But never mind that. The reason that you are locked in that chair is that you are clearly a mage of some power according to the reports that I was given yesterday."

"The…but Amelia led me away from her troops."

The woman smiled and said, "I would imagine she did. But all troops are required to have at least one person in them that can sense magic. Most of the time it's the commander, but others tend to get a feel for the art after a while."

"Okay…so…"

"Why am I telling you this?"

"Well, that's one question."

"It's simple really." Ichigo looked at her blankly. "There's no reason for me not to." Ichigo raised his eyebrows, a silent display of his surprise. "Anyway. Back to the reason you're here. I told you that you're here because you are a mage of some power, yes?" she didn't let Ichigo say anything, having answered her own question. "As I'm sure Amelia told you it is against the law to practice magic without registering yourself as a mage with the council. Even if you have just submitted an application for a license, to get to the level that you are at would require you to have been practicing for quite some time, although you must have had a young start to be able to take on Amelia on equal footing."

"Well, I wouldn't say _that_ exactly," Ichigo commented.

The woman thought, '_Does that mean that he's stronger than Amelia?_' "Now, the punishment for…"

"Hold up a second."

The woman raised her left eyebrow and said, "and why should I do that?"

"The whole premise of this is that I have been practicing magic for years, right?"

"Yes."

"Then I'm sorry, but if that's the case then you have no right to hold me here."

"And why is that?"

"Because, like I tried to explain to Amelia I only got here about two weeks ago."

The woman frowned and demanded, "Explain," not wanting to waste her time, especially when she was needed to mediate between her husband and her daughter.

"I really don't like going through this story again and again. But alright, if I must. I'm not actually from this world." The woman looked at him flatly, clearly not believing a word of it. "I know, I know. If it weren't happening to me I'd have problems believing it myself."

'_Well, at least he's got that bit right._'

"I was fighting against this guy in my world and we fired our strongest attacks at each other, creating, what I must assume is some kind of space-time rip that sucked me in, causing me to end up here. That's how I ended up here. Now, for the whole mage thing, when I was ejected from the void I was separated from this…thing…inside me. You can decide if it was lucky or not, because I was ejected into some forest where Mirajane Strauss and her siblings were fighting against some demonic beast-thing that her brother had tried to save them from by attempting a Full Take Over. Unfortunately it ended up backfiring, causing him to go out of control. Long story short, Mirajane copied all of her Take Over knowledge into my head, which let me regain control of the thing that had escaped from my body. So, now you know everything," Ichigo said. '_Well, not actually everything, but enough of it to get me out of this jam…I hope._'

"Well," the woman said, "to tell the truth, that seems rather fantastical to me. But it does explain away some of the other questions that I had planned for you."

"Such as?"

"Oh, just things like, how is it that you gained so much power without getting on our radar sooner and how did you learn a relatively rare magic like Take Over."

"Oh," Ichigo said.

"But I will of course need to confirm the details that you have just informed me of."

"Of course," Ichigo agreed, understanding the need for accuracy.

"But for a quick test, what is the name of the Black Mage"

"The who?" Ichigo exclaimed.

The woman wrote something on a piece of paper on her clipboard. "What is the name of the kingdom to the north?"

Ichigo thought back to the globe that he saw in Makarov's office and said, "Hmm…I think that globe in Makarov's office said that it was the Pelgrade Kingdom."

The woman wrote something else down as she thought, '_Okay, that was pretty close, but that's acceptable if he saw a globe in Makarov's office. That means that it's zero for two. If my information is correct, Mirajane should know just about everything about Take Over Magic, so if she's passed on all of her knowledge, then this Ichigo should know all about it too. If so then…_' "What type of magic is Take Over?"

"There are some theories flying around that Take Over is a form of Seith Magic, but it isn't. Take Over is actually an advanced form of Transformation Magic that lets the user literally Take Over a creatures powers and then use them for themself. Generally the forms grant the user increases in their physical capabilities in addition to the powers originally used by the creature. Most users use a living creature as the basis for their transformation, but there is a rarer form that uses non-living material as a base."

'_Okay, he's got that one right. Then one more should do it._' "Name one of the types of magic that have been forbidden by the Magic Council."

"There's forbidden magic?"

"Yes," the woman said. "I'll give you a book on the different types of magic and their restrictions for use before you leave."

"Then…you believe me?" Ichigo asked, surprised that someone believed his story, as he had issue believing it himself.

"While it is fantastical, that chair you're in actually registers your heartbeat and perspiration and, if it determines that you are lying, it will give you a shock. Of course, that's just for backup if I, or another interrogator misses something. I'm glad to say that so far I haven't needed it."

"So what now?"

"Now, thanks to my husband you'll need to wait here until the council is ready to hear you; Due to our little session though you should have little problem with that. I, and no doubt Amelia, will speak on your behalf. Plus, despite their differences, Makarov's word still carries a lot of weight amongst the council."

"Thank you," Ichigo said.

"Don't worry about it," the woman said, getting up from her seat, which lowered back into the ground when she took two steps away from it.

Before she left Ichigo grabbed her attention, saying, "Uhh…"

She looked over she shoulder and said, "Yes?"

"Can you take these off now?" pulling against the cuffs to signify what he was talking about.

"Oh. No. Sorry, they will come off only when there are two people other than you in the room."

"I see," Ichigo said, understanding the need for security.

Ten minutes after Amelia's mother left the room a black mist started to flow up from the area around where the second chair had arisen.

XXXXXXX

A/N

(1) anima_fierce_and_just_by_wen_m-d5n5vc9

(2) anima_Clover_by_Wen_M

(3) Anima_Lynn_Steiner_by_Wen_M


	5. Assume Nothing

When Amelia had finished drying herself off she put on a long-sleeve black shirt and a black miniskirt with Rune Knight Crest's cut out at the bottom, after which she sat on her bed and pulled up a pair of white thigh-high stay-up stockings. Amelia sighed and said to herself, "I _really_ hate this," moving over to her armour stand. She sighed again before she put on her armour(1) to get ready for her upcoming meeting with the Magic Council. She attached ornamental sword that she received upon gaining her current rank of Commander to the left fauld. She then left to go to the Magic Council's Grand Hall.

When she reached the massive, closed, ornate doors leading into the Grand Hall she sighed and shook her head before fixing a mask of calm seriousness over her inwardly conflicted feelings concerning the matter at hand. She pushed open the doors and walked down the aisle to the podium, surrounded by members of the Rune Knights and numerous journalists sitting in pews to either side, before all eleven members of the Magic Council, which were sitting on massive chairs on an elevated platform high above the floor, the Lead Councilman sitting in the centre. Six of the seven commanders of the Rune Knights were also present, lacking only her mother, sitting in seats, not quite as large as those that the members of the Magic Council possessed. They were also on an elevated platform though theirs reached barely half the height of the Mage's. Amelia thought, '_Pompous bastards, the lot of them,_' her face not betraying her thoughts.

The Lead Councilman, an aging, rather fat, man wearing blue robes that, to Amelia looked an awful lot like a dressing gown, and a bright yellow phrygian cap asked, "What matter are you here to address?"

"Before we get to that, honoured councillors," Amelia said, mentally spewing at the words coming out of her mouth. "I would request that you remove all journalists from the room."

"Oh. Why is that?"

"The matter of which I need to discuss is that of Ichigo Kurosaki, the mage whom I have brought here as regards his use of magic whilst unregistered."

"I don't see what need there is to discuss anything. I'm sorry my child, but the law is clear on what happens once they have been…"

"There are extenuating circumstances, as I am sure you are aware of."

"Excuse me?" the lead councillor said. "What are these circumstances that we should be aware of?"

"I am sure that our untimely delay in returning caused a missive from Makarov Dreyar, the Guildmaster of Fairy Tail to arrive here some time before I and my company did."

"From Makarov?"

"Wait. Then you didn't get it?" Amelia asked, stunned that the message had not yet arrived.

"No. We are as yet to receive any notifications from that troublesome guild."

"Well, in that case I shall inform you about what the missive contains. However, the information that I have obtained has the potential to lead the world to a disaster of unimaginable proportions should the wrong people get a hold of it."

"Hmm," the lead councillor said, stroking his bushy beard as the other councillors, and the Rune Knight commanders started to talk amongst each other. '_If the information that she has is that dangerous, then it would do none of us any good for it to get out. Plus, Amelia is not one to over-exaggerate._' "Very well," the lead councillor said, bringing a halt to further discussion. "All journalists along with that are not in service to the council are to leave the room." There was an outcry from the journalists about a right to information and freedom of the press. They were ignored by the Rune Knights who escorted them out of the room, forcefully if need be. "Now. Please continue."

"Thank you your honour. The person that I brought here goes by the name Ichigo Kurosaki."

"So what's so secret about this guy?" another of the council members demanded.

Amelia looked at him and saw that he was wearing the same style of clothing as the lead councillor, with the exception that his robes were red and his hat was green. She said, "Councilman Yuorlak. I am getting to that."

Yuorlak thought, '_Arrogant brat._'

Amelia then said, "May I continue," to councillor Yuorlak.

"Go on then," Councilman Yuorlak said.

"Thank you," Amelia said, not wanting to have the Magic Council looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life. "Ichigo Kurosaki is a mage that has the ability to use Take Over Magic at a high level. As such he must have taken a significant amount of time to get to that level. That is the root belief of the council's order to detain him, is it not?"

The lead councilman, Halgarth, said, "Indeed it is child. However, given that you are aware of this, you likely saw him using it, correct?"

"Indeed."

"So at the very least he was practicing magic as an unregistered mage, correct?"

"Yes…and no."

"What!?" another councilman, Al'renao, angrily demanded, thinking that Amelia was trying to pull a fast one. "I won't have you wasting our time because of some foolish crush you ha…"

"I would do no such thing," Amelia yelled, annoyed at the insinuation that she would waste her time on something so ridiculous.

"Then how do you explain what you are currently doing."

Amelia breathed out before taking a deep breath in and repeating the exercise, forcing herself to remain calm. She saw the councilman smirk at getting a rise from her and thought, '_Damn smug bastard._' "Can I continue with my explanation?"

"Please," Councilman Halgarth said. The then instructed his fellow councilmen, "If there are any more questions, please hold them until Commander Hikreux has completed her report," emphasising her title to remind the other councillors of the respect that they should be showing Amelia.

"Thank you your honour," Amelia said before she resumed where she had just left off. "As I was saying, the Lead Councilman's statement was both correct and incorrect as Ichigo had filled in the registration form that morning. So, when we met he was, technically, a registered mage, despite the fact that the form had yet to be processed here."

"If it hadn't been processed yet, then it remains fact that this Ichigo wasn't a…"

"All that is truly required is that one councilman receives a valid registration form for a person to be considered a registered mage. Nowhere in the bylaws does it say that it has to be a councillor from the High Council. As you know, Makarov Dreyar, one of the Ten Wizard Saints, sits on the Magic Council of Fiore, a subsidiary of this Council, with most the powers of yourselves, such as in the registration of a mage."

Councilman Halgarth smiled as he thought, '_Nice going Amelia. It really is a waste of her skills, having her in the Rune Knights._'

She had the opposite effect on the two council members that had been interrupting her as they each thought, '_Damn her, using our own laws against us._'

"Such as it is, at the point that I met him he was, technically, a registered mage. I know what you are going to say, Councilman Yuorlak. The reason that I was sent there in the first place is because he was using magic whilst still unregistered." Amelia paused to let her words sink in. She saw Councilman Yuorlak start to move forward to interject. Cutting Yuorlak off before he began, Amelia said, "But I ask you, does a piece of paper really matter if all that is happening is that they are training. Before you answer that though, I need to tell you something that even he finds hard to believe."

Councilman Al'renao asked, "If the mage in question fails to believe a story that he has told you, why then do you seek to perpetuate it?"

"Because it makes the pieces fit."

"What are these pieces that you speak of?" Councilman Halgarth asked.

"As you know, periodically, the Rune Knights send lieutenant ranked members to the various countries and collect census information. This information includes names and dates of birth that are stored in an easily accessible archive. Before I was sent on my mission I looked through it for any and all information on people matching the description provided to us and memorised each of their files, including appearances. He matches none of them. Of course, that is just one piece of the puzzle. I won't bore you with the others. This lack of confirmable data is why General Lynn Hikreux is unable to be with us, here, right now."

Yuorlak thought, '_That crafty bitch. She's thought through our objections already._'

Councilman Halgarth and General Hikreux thought, '_Good one Amelia._'

"Now, on to the story that is, truly, fantastical."

Al'renao said, "If it's so fantastical, then why are you telling us about it?"

"As I said, it is unbelievable, but it also explains everything. You see, Ichigo is not from our world." Amelia waited for the objections to come flying at her. None came. She thought, '_Huh? Why are there no jeers, or objections of disbelief?_'

The members of the High Council talked amongst themselves as did the Generals and the audience. When the Council Members finally came to an agreement, the Lead Councillor stood up, silencing the murmurs. He said, "We are…aware of another world. According to the ancient texts it is called Edolas and is a mirror image of our world." His words caused more talking amongst members of both the audience and the Generals. "Since such things are being discussed, I think I speak for all the members of this council when I say that you have our greatest appreciation for wanting the journalists removed."

As Councilman Halgarth talked, Councilman Yuorlak silently cast a spell. When he was done he communicated, "Colette, Michel, what do you think?" mentally.

"Yuorlak?" Michel communicated.

"Yes."

"It's been a while since you've used your telepathy."

Colette, ever the pragmatist, didn't waste any time in communicating, "This Ichigo could pose a threat, if he's as powerful as Amelia claims him to be."

"It's unlikely that he is as yet," Michel thought.

"Then we should take him out as soon as possible."

"Yuorlak?" Michel thought, unsure if Yuorlak was still listening in on their conversation.

"Yes?" Yuorlak answered as the seventh General joined her companions.

"Have you been listening?"

"No. I set it up so my name would open the channel."

"Good, can you set up a link with Alfred?"

"Sure," Yuorlak said, connecting his subordinate with another deep under the Citadel.

Colette communicated, "Alfred…" before waiting for a reply. Not getting one she communicated, "Alfred…ALFRED!"

Alfred replied, "Sorry Sir, just catching a few Z's"

"Well you'd better wake up, and wake up quick smart because…"

Amelia waited until the Lead Councillor had finished his spiel on Edolas before analysing everything that she had just learned and compared it with what she had been told by Ichigo on their way. Eventually she said, "I am sorry Councillor Halgarth, but I do not believe that Ichigo is from the planet that you have described."

"Why is that?"

"From what he told me, there are different types of being on his world that can use different types of magic based on which type of being they are. If that's the case then I think that it would be fair to say that it is at least somewhat comparable to this one. However in your explanation of how things work in Edolas, they use magic items that achieve much the same effect."

"I see," Councillor Halgarth said, stroking his beard in thought. "Then, if that's the case, there are two questions that must be asked. How did he get here? and how can he use an advanced magic like Take Over?"

"As to the first, I believe that he either does not know, or, if he does, he believes that it would be too dangerous for us to know; the second I can help you with. On our way here he told me that when he arrived he burst in on a mission that Mirajane 'The Demon' Strauss was taking with her siblings. It would seem, if you pardon my language, that the mission went south, causing Elfman Strauss to attempt a Full-Body Take Over. According to Ichigo, who heard it from Mirajane, her brother was overcome by The Beast's powers and lost control of the Take Over. In his world, Ichigo told me, that he had some creature inside him that was separated upon entering ours. I can only speculate, but it is possible that the way that they were together was incompatible with the rules of this world and his body rejected it, much as it would a virus. By that time Mirajane was too exhausted to do anything herself, so she copied all of her Take Over knowledge, and some of her magical power, to him in order for him to take control of the creature that he had been separated from as it was putting up…no, winning, a fight against the out of control Elfman. As to the reason that it was fighting it I cannot even begin to speculate, however the reason for that is irrelevant. As all of this happened no more than two weeks ago it is impossible for him to have been practicing magic for any extended period of..." As Amelia was finishing up her testimony on Ichigo's behalf, all present in the Grand Hall, felt a wave of dread fall over them coming from the interrogation chamber under the courtyard. The generals and councilmen looked among themselves, wondering what it was, but Amelia recognised it instantly. She thought, '_Ichigo!_' and ran from the room, Requipping her Lightning Ranger armour. Even before she left the room all anyone could see of Amelia was a yellow blur as she ran to the interrogation chamber.

XXXXXXX

A/N

(1) Anima_Holy_paladin_by_Wen_M


	6. Team Dea'mon

As his daughter rushed from the room High General Hikreux looked to the right and asked, "Lynn, _where_ does Amelia think she's going?"

Lynn sighed and said, "Where do you think?"

High General Hikreux looked past his wife and said, "Shara."

Shara, a tall blonde woman with short hair that was wearing a set of armour similar to that of Amelia, but with flame designs instead of wings. She was wearing a dha-lwe containing a ceremonial Shan dha with a jewel-encrusted, golden, blade. She was commander of the ranged division of the Rune Knights. She said, "Sir," and vanished, using her teleportation magic to get to the interrogation chamber before Amelia.

She looked through one of the many windows built into the side of the room and saw that the entire chamber was filled with black magical energy. She thought, '_Death Magic!_' and frowned as she thought out loud, "But who here would use…" as she came to a conclusion she saw Amelia enter the room and come out of her dash, moving to open the door and release Ichigo from his bonds. Shara said, "Amelia, stop."

"But…" Amelia said as she turned the doorknob.

Shara slammed her hand against the door, forcing it shut before Amelia could get it open. "I said NO. That chamber is flooded with death magic. If you go in there you'll be just as dead as Ichigo."

"He's not dead," Amelia stated.

"Of course he is. No mage has ever survived through Death Haze except your...wait…where did you get that sword Amelia?"

"This?" Amelia asked, resting her left hand on her sword.

"Yes. That."

"Dad gave it to me as soon as I got back with Ichigo. Why?"

"So that's how he did it. That sly bloody…" Amelia looked at the general of her division, shaking her head, her confusion plain to see. "You remember that your father was promoted to Commander after the mission to Enca, right?"

"What of it?"

"He got your mother and Romeo through a Death Haze by using some unknown barrier. Now that I think of it, that's also the last time he ever used that sword."

"Then…"

"We might just be able to get through this after all."

"Wait. What about you? You were on the mission to Enca as well."

"Well," Shara smiled, two gold coloured magic circles appearing around her waist, one raising up and one going down. She said, "Take Over: Máquina Soul." When the glow from the magic circles dissipated she was clad in a set of blue, black and white mechanical armour that fit like a second skin(1). "Let's go," Shara said, her armour extending to include a silver helmet that folded up the sides and to Shara's hairline before forming a completely smooth faceplate that she could see through, though no one else could. "This is how _I_ got through," Shara said, opening the door.

Amelia thought, '_Shara-sensei knows Take Over? Well, I suppose that you can't drain the life of a machine, so it does make sense that Death Magic wouldn't work on her in that form._'

Amelia placed her bow on a hook on her belt that was designed for the purpose. She then followed Shara through the door, her sword drawn, generating a red barrier an inch above her skin before it sank into her body. The two female mages, to Shara's shock, and Amelia's relief, heard a voice say, "It's about bloody time."

Shara exclaimed, "But how…"

"How? How what?" Ichigo asked through the darkness.

"How can you be alive in this?"

"Oh, that. When I felt my life being drained from me I transformed into my Hollow Soul mode."

_Shara thought, 'Even so, a normal take over shouldn't be able to negate the Death Magic. So what…' _she shook her head, _'it doesn't matter right now.' _She said,"Where did this Haze come from?" towards the voice.

"It came through the gap in the floor where the interrogator's chair is."

Shara thought, '_Damn it. I did warn them that something like this could happen when they were building this place…but only the other generals know about my objections so who…I really don't even need to guess._'

Amelia asked, "What now Shara-sensei?" Amelia asked through the darkness.

"Pulling down on the jaw of the dragon on the southern wall opens up a way below in order to conduct maintenance on the mechanisms."

"Right," Amelia said, being the closest to the wall in question. Once she had pulled down on the jaw the panels of the floors that they were standing on lowered them down, below the interrogation chamber. When they were down Amelia saw that Ichigo was in his partially transformed state before registering that there were three…none of the mages knew what to call them, standing below the chair mechanism, flowing black magical power into the room.

The first one, closest to Ichigo, was a muscular humanoid, but his skin was black with black and purple scales with mean looking claws and an evil-looking sword on his hip. He was wearing a ragged masked and menacing thigh-high plate armour(2). The second one, that was closest to Shara, was standing to the left of the first and was wearing a black cloak that seemed to drape from the shoulders. All the mages could see of his arms were some evil looking black metal gauntlets and black extending up from them, whether it was skin or material, they couldn't tell. The…whatever it was, had black pauldrons, matching the gauntlets, with the same sinister look to them. He was wearing a helmet that reminded Ichigo of a hat that he had seen a clown wearing at a circus his family had taken him to when he was a boy, but it too matched the gauntlets. Hanging off of the pauldrons, and random spots on the cloak there were numerous amulets, to which purpose none of the mages yet knew(3). The third, closest to Amelia, was standing opposite the second. It looked like a humanoid dragon(4) wearing a massive belt that had chains dangling off of it and a studded leather belt directly below it that had skulls attached to it. Each of them were generating black magical energy that swirled around them before merging with the others' and seeping through the cracks in the floor.

Ichigo was hesitating about calling the thing before him a demon, but he had no other words to describe it. However, standing in between him and the demon was standing a man wearing a black coat with arcane symbols on it, doing who knew what. He wore a brown leather lorica segmentata over a black double-breasted shirt with only one row of buttons. He wore loose-fit black pants and a brown leather belt. He had on black metal, sabaton's and greaves that had a flame pattern that spiralled around them, complementing the red flame design reaching up the right leg of his pants. There was a red zanbatō on the man's back, along with what, to Ichigo, appeared to be two reverse-hilt wakizashi in scabbards at the man's waist(5). The man reached over his shoulder as he walked forward and brought the zanbatō to the front before running at Ichigo, who drew his own sword and moved forward at the same pace, though he could have far outstripped it if he wanted to.

In between Amelia and, what she was referring to as a Dragonkin was a man. He, like the man closing in on Ichigo, was clad all in black. He was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt and had a metallic black and silver wrist guard, held in place by leather belts. He was also wearing a torn and ragged hooded cape attached to his black pauldrons that, like the wrist guard, had a silver design threaded through them. He was wearing loose-fit black pants tucked into the greaves that he was wearing. He was also wearing a black leather brigandine that, like the coat that Ichigo's adversary was wearing, was marked with, albeit different, arcane symbols. The man had a rencong attached to his belt(6). He had already drawn his ornate, but, unlike those of the Rune Knight's, still fully functional, rapier when he said, "You are from the ranged division, aren't you?"

"What of it?" Amelia asked, frowning in confusion.

"Then your little chance of victory just changed into a non-existent one."

"And why is that?" Amelia asked as the man started to walk towards her.

"No one that hasn't trained in the environment for many hours can withstand being near Death Magic without being affected, which means that you have something on you that is protecting you from it. I'm guessing that it's that sword you're clutching."

"Your point being?"

"You use a bow to fight. That needs two hand to use, and if you need to hold a sword in one of them then you can't use your bow." He then sped up, thrusting at Amelia, trying to skewer her through her heart.

Standing in front of Shara a tall mechanical…thing…that had mechanical wings; Both forearms had gun barrels incorporated into it(7). Shara said, "You're a big one, aren't you?" as the thing walked towards her, firing magic bullets at her.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, in the Grand Reception Hall, High General Hikreux was furious. Once Amelia and Shara were out of the room he had gotten out of his seat and jumped over the table and started to glare at the generals seated before him, his magical power manifesting as a blue aura around him. Claire D'lien shrunk into her chair, unused to the side of the General that was being shown as he was normally a happy-go-lucky type of guy, except when dealing with his daughter. Romeo, having been around the General since they were in training together, was somewhat used to his friend's rage, but still wary of it. Lynn bit her lip, thinking about the time that he had destroyed almost an entire city block trying to catch a thief who dared to try and pickpocket him. Colette and Michel however were nervous wrecks. He growled, "What have you two done?" focusing the full force of his magical power onto them.

Colette stuttered, "I…I…" never having seen High General Hikreux so angry before.

From his position above Chancellor Yuorlak said, "I would say a better question is wht are you doing General…sorry…it's High General isn't it. Sometimes I forget mundane things like that."

High General Hikreux said, "Stay out of this old man, this is Rune Knight business," having the same disrespect for the Magic Council as his daughter.

"Actually, the Rune Knights are merely an extension of our power. As such, any 'Rune Knight business', is also our business. Now, what seems to be the problem?"

"_That_ should be obvious, even to you, _Councillor._"

"Watch your tone."

"You watch yours."

"Alright, alright," Lead Councillor Halgarth said, trying to defuse the situation. "Everyone calm down. The last thing that we want is infighting between the two enforcement arms of the law. Yuorlak, whilst it is true that the Rune Knights do do our bidding, at the same time they are also an independent agent that takes care of the enforcement of laws other than those pertaining to magical matters."

"Maybe so, Lead Councillor," Councilman Yuorlak said, "However this is clearly a magical matter. As such it comes under our jurisdiction."

"Hmm…" Lead Councillor Halgarth said, "you might be right. What do you say to that High General Hikreux?"

"I ask that you let me do my job in determining just who the responsible parties are while you lot sit on your fancy chairs discussing it."

"Our…!" High Councillor Del'rei, a councillor that was an aging, short, man wearing green robes that look an awful lot like a dressing gown, and a bright yellow phrygian cap. He was the second in command of the Magic Council after Lead Councillor Halgarth and expected to succeed him within a few years.

"But I must admit that I am curious as to why one of the members of the 'esteemed' Magic Council would try to interfere when I am questioning the ones most likely to be responsible for the attack on a prisoner."

"I don't answer to you, _General_," Yuorlak said, purposefully not using the full title.

"Maybe not Yuorlak," High Councillor Del'rei said, "But you do answer to me. I would very much like to hear your reply to the High General's question."

Yuorlak thought, '_I can't exactly tell them that I'm involved in the incident, so what is believabl…_' "I was merely concerned that the _High_ General was getting carried away and might do something rather stupid whilst consumed by rage."

"Hmm…" High General Hikreux said, not believing a word of it as he had felt the magic being used by the councillor during the hearing.

Lead Councillor Halgarth, High Councillor Del'rei, and Councilman Gran Doma, along with High General Hikreux, didn't believe the Councilman's words for a second, but, unable to prove otherwise, let it go.

"Now, where was I?"

"I believe, dear," General Lynn Hikreux said. "You were about to go and check on our daughter while Clair and I keep an eye on those two," pointing at Colette and Michel.

"I can't."

"What do you mean?"

"Amelia, Shara and the prisoner are currently in combat with mages protecting those casting the Death Magic that we all feel. As such the mages casting it are still doing so in order to prevent anybody else coming to their aid. Since that is the case there are none here that can go to assist them that I trust to do so."

"We can help them," Colette suggested.

"Oh," General Clair D'lien said, "and how would you do that exactly?"

General Lynn Hikreux said, "The only ones that can survive near Death Magic are those that can cast it themselves, or those experienced enough to counter it." '_Although there is _one_ other way, and I'm glad Amelia has it._'

"Your point?" Colette asked.

High General Hikreux said, "My wife's point, Colette, is that if that is the case, then you must have either possession of, or been in contact with a person that can use, Death Magic for a significant amount of time. Lynn, Clair, detain these two immediately."

Colette said, "That's not gonna happen," and placed a hand on the desk before her before leaping out of it, requipping into her battle armour, equipped with a magical stave(8).

Michel thought, '_Damn it Colette. Had you just kept your mouth shut then…ah the hell with it. There's no point spilling over the 'what ifs' and 'could have beens'._'

As Michel started to stand up Lynn levelled her colichemarde against his neck. She said, "I wouldn't try anything if I were you."

Michel sighed, said, "Fine," and sat back down.

XXXXX

As the man lunged at Amelia she brought her sword around, parrying the strike, as she took a step back, a yellow blur trailing behind every move she made. The man thought, '_She blocked that? My strikes are hard to avoid, though not impossible, so I could at least understand that much. But she actually blocked it? Not only that, she is far enough away to be able to react with enough time to..._' he lunged again.

Amelia deflected it again, taking another back step, deflecting a second strike that came before she finished taking her step. She thought, '_Damn, this guy' fast,_' as she parried another strike.

'_How is she doing this? She's part of the ranged division. The reports make no mention of someone like this, so how…_' he said, "What are you?" as he lunged again.

"Huh?" Amelia exclaimed as she parried another strike, this time not taking another back-step, shocking the man as she took a step forward, getting within his reach. She swung her sword around, knocking her opponents sword arm to the side before taking another step forward, slashing her sword at his midsection. Amelia barely saw the magic circle appear in front of the man's other hand before he stabbed the straight-blade sabre that he was now holding at her in order to skewer her. Amelia spun backwards on her left foot, bringing her body away from the sabre and her own sword around at a speed even faster than it was already moving. After Amelia countered the sabre she continued to spin, moving her sword up in an attempt to sever the man's right hand from his body. The man switched his rapier out for a triangle shield with a black, fire-breathing, dragon detailed on a blood-red background on it. Amelia grunted in dissatisfaction at the man's actions before thinking, '_Well, at least he isn't using a duel-wield style, which means that his style probably hasn't changed.'_

"I'll say again, what are you?"

"Why are you asking me that?" Amelia said, thrusting at the man, who brought his shield in front of him to block Amelia's strike, letting her sword pierce through it, before trying to requip the shield out for the rapier, taking the sword that was shielding her away with it. At the same time he thrust at her, slower than he had been. Amelia spun to the left again, dragging her sword from the shield as it was consumed by the man's magic seal as she spun out of the way of the thrust. She took the opportunity to slash at the man's side.

When she hit she was expecting her blade to slice through the man's clothes and flesh. She didn't expect it to end him, but it should have at least ended the fight, knowing that she, Shara and Ichigo needed to keep at least one of their opponents alive to question and doubted that any of the others would stop without killing them. Unfortunately none of what she was expecting came to pass. Her blade was stopped by the brigandine that the man was wearing. The man said, "Sorry, not that easy," and slashed at her with his sabre.

While that was going on Ichigo started to slash up at his opponents red zanbatō. Before the swords clashed though Ichigo noticed that the zanbatō was generating a heat haze. He thought, '_What the…!_' As his sword neared the zanbatō it started to glow red and Ichigo started to feel hot. Ichigo grabbed his sword's hilt with his second hand and reversed his grip, forcing the sword against his side and took two quick steps behind his opponent before spinning on his foot, bringing his sword around as he forced his magical power into it and retained it, making it look as if the blade of his sword was layered in crystalized blood. Ichigo clashed his sword against the zanbatō, equalling the force of the zanbatō.

The man was surprised enough that the punk that they had been sent to kill noticed that his sword could melt through anything and then stopped his attack. But then the blade hadn't melted through the punk's sword. He said, "Not bad kid."

"Thanks," Ichigo said as he relaxed his grip, letting the man overpower him before stepping forward as he slashed at him. The man stepped back, surprising Ichigo when his sword's hilt came apart, connected by some metal cord thing that he used to block the strike.

The man lifted the bit of the hilt that he was holding up, causing the sword to swing at Ichigo from behind, trying to cleave Ichigo in two. Ichigo brought his sword over his shoulder, pointing at the ground to defend against the strike. The man pointed his middle and index fingers at Ichigo and said, "Dark Empujón(9)," causing a black beam to rush at Ichigo while the force of his blade kept Ichigo from focusing fully on him.

Ichigo heard the man he was fighting say something and, since he was looking at the zanbatō, knew it had nothing to do with the blade that he was defending against; Ichigo thought, _'Not the sword,'_ and jumped a bit, letting the zanbatō force him to flip over it, keeping his sword on the blade at all times, making sure not to touch it himself. As Ichigo was flipping over the sword he saw a black beam fly inches above his head. Once the beam disappeared Ichigo said, "You know what?"

"Do I know what?"

"I'm going to tell you my name after all."

"I don't care. I'll just forget it after I kill you anyway."

"Well, we do things differently where I'm from." The man just looked at Ichigo. Ichigo sighed before saying, "Ah hell, there's probably no point anyway."

"Say again?"

"It may sound a bit silly, but the reason you give your name in a fight is so that you know the name of the one that killed you."

"If that's the case then you don't need to tell me your name."

Ichigo closed on the man, but had to defend against the zanbatō that the man swung at him with on the end of the cord. Ichigo thought, '_That's just like…_' he grinned and asked, "Does that thing have a name?"

"Why would a sword have a name?"

"So that's a no then?"

"Indeed."

"I think I'll be taking it for myself when we're done here."

"That won't be happening," the man said, closing on Ichigo, retracting the cord, re-joining both halves of the hilt. He swung down on Ichigo, stronger than before, a red blur trailing his swords movement. As he brought his sword down on Ichigo he pointed his middle and forefinger at Ichigo, once again saying, "Dark Empujón," firing a dark beam at Ichigo from close range.

Ichigo easily blocked the zanbatō with his sword held in one arm, figuring that the man would try something funny as straight swordplay hadn't worked. At the same time as the man pointed at him, Ichigo pointed his middle and forefinger of his right hand at his opponent and said, "Cero(10)," shooting a light blue beam at his opponent. The two attacks met halfway between the mages, sending them in opposite directions when they exploded. Despite the power behind the blast they each only went about two meters before stopping and charging at each other again, clashing swords as soon as they were in range.

Shara started to run at her opponent, but, before she got too far the big robot-thing pointed one of the turrets mounted on its arm and started to shoot at her, causing her to turn right and start running from side to side, always moving closer to her opponent. As she ran she had to dodge every shot that it fired at her as they were exploding on impact. As she ran she thought, '_Damn that Death Magic,_' glancing at the three still casting it from the side of her eyes. '_If they weren't there I could have this won already. Well, nothing I can do about it just yet._' She kept running.

When she was close enough she jumped at the massive robot and flipped as she extended two energy blades from a recess that opened from the back of her hands, slashing the turrets from the robot before jumping on its shoulders and crouching down to place her hands on the wings coming from its back. She said, "Take Over: Mahina Soul," causing the wings to glow golden before disappearing. As soon as the wings disappeared from the robot a glow appeared on her shoulders, extending out to form wings that were the same shape, and functioned identically to, those that had just disappeared from the robot, except Shara's were smaller, to fit her shorter frame, and white where the robot's had been black.

Shara jumped away from the robot, so that she was on the same side that she had started on and flipped to land on her feet. She said, "Thanks big boy, now Romeo won't have anything to hold over my head anymore. Although in hindsight I suppose I should have nabbed those guns instead," looking at the guns that were no longer any use, to her or the robot she was fighting. Her eyes widened as she saw the forearms, where the turrets had been, closed over before rotating. The top of the forearm opened up, revealing more gun turrets at the same time that the 'neck' of the chest slid down, causing two mounted guns to appear on its shoulders. She thought, '_Ah bugger._'

XXXXXXX

A/N

(1) Anima_Shara_Visnu_by_Wen_M

(2) anima_god_of_darkness_by_wen_m-d4ie8gu

(3) Anima_ShadowLord_by_Wen_M

(4) Demon King Advanced by Concept-Art-House

(5) A combination of Anima_No_23_by_Wen_M & anima_guardian_in_white_by_wen_m-d5ndjdb

(6) Anima_19_by_Wen_M

(7) Anima_20_by_Wen_M

(8) anima_colette_by_wen_m-d5d6knc

(9) Dark Empujón: Dark Thrust - an attack using Dark Magic that functions, and looks, much like a Cero Oscuras

(10) I don't think I need to explain this one.


	7. The Beginning of the End

A/N

ultima-owner

No, it is not unique to Ikkaku. That belief is inherent in all members of squad 11. That said, Mayuri asks the opponent their name too, albeit for a very different, more sinister, reason. Over time Ichigo's way of doing things has been changed to be in line with the eleventh squad. That is why Ichigo gives that explanation.

XXXXXXX

Out of the corner of his eye Ichigo saw that when Amelia tried to stab her opponent the brigandine stopped her blade and noticed the sigils on it glowing. He thought, '_That's strange._' Then he looked at the coat that his opponent was wearing and looked long and hard at the sigils on it and noticed that the glove of the hand that he was holding his sword in was glowing a dull, almost imperceptible, red. He thought, '_Okay, if the sigils on that guy's vest-thing protects against physical strikes, what do the ones on...wait a sec,'_ Ichigo took note of the haze that the sword in the man's hand was generating. '_Maybe…' _Ichigo then charged at his opponent at his full speed, which his opponent could barely follow, before slashing at the man's gloved hand and cutting the back of the glove of the hand that was holding the sword.

Ichigo's opponent cried out before dropping the sword and stumbling back so that he was standing closer to the demonic being that he was protecting. He started shaking his hand in an attempt to cool it. He asked, "Why?" as none of his opponents before had tried cutting his glove.

"I'm not sure if it's the same here, but where I come from for a heat haze to form the surface needs to be at least ten degrees hotter than the surrounding atmosphere. I'm guessing that that sword is considerably hotter than that. As such, your sword was likely similar in function to Amelia's bows. While they are powerful, they are too powerful to be used without some kind of protection. Since both your cloak and gloves had the same sigils on them I figured that it was to protect against the immense heat that the sword generated."

"You wanted to know my name, right?" the man asked.

"Yeah, though at this point it hardly seems worth it."

"My name is Alfred, Alfred von Eisberg," Alfred said as he drew both swords from his belt. "You should feel proud. This is only the second time that I have had to draw these swords. The first time was against Andrealphus."

"Andrealphus?"

"The demon behind me," Alfred said, inclining his head backwards. "Although in the end I still ended up losing." Alfred then ran at Ichigo at a massive speed, almost as fast as Ichigo had moved to cut his glove.

Ichigo defended against each of the strikes, but he was, slowly, being pushed back. Ichigo thought, '_I can see why he wouldn't want to bring those swords out too often,_' seeing the pained look on Alfred's face as his body moved at speeds that it was unaccustomed to. Ichigo was. Ichigo, fed up with the fight, disappeared from Alfred's sight before, instantaneously, appearing at his side, swinging his sword down. Ichigo severed Alfred's hands from his arms, causing the swords to drop to the ground amongst cries of agony as he clutched his arms around his body, tears running down his face in rivers.

Ichigo sheathed his sword before he bent down and took a hold of the hand that still had a full glove on and removed it before putting it on and picking up the zanbatō that had fallen next to it. He moved to Alfred's side and grabbed first one arm, and then another, pressing the amputated stub to the flat of the sword, cauterizing the wound. Ichigo said, "It's only a temporary fix, but it should hold you over until you get to a hospital." Ichigo then pointed the zanbatō at Andrealphus' back and said, "You're next."

XXXXX

Amelia spun, blocking her opponent's strike before stopping behind her opponent. As her opponent spun to face her she saw that the sigils didn't continue all the way around the brigandine, instead only covering the front. She had time to think, '_There's no..._' Her opponent stabbed at her as he turned. Amelia deflected the strike before slashing at him as she passed by him in order to prevent her from being trapped between the swordsman and the Dragonkin that he was protecting. As she thought, her slash didn't cut through the brigandine.

The man said, "I thought that we had already established that I cannot be cut."

"True," Amelia said, "one slash didn't cut through your armour. That only meant that I needed to try it once more to be certain." '_Besides, it would be a bad idea to get trapped between him and that thing._'

"I suppose. I don't suppose you'd tell me your name?"

"Why?"

"Because, you've done well, but it should be clear by now that there is no way that you can win."

"How's that?"

"You can't use your bow and you can't cut me, which means you need to try for a head shot, which won't work. That means that there is no way to victory for you. I like to send flowers to the families of my victims."

Amelia said, "You crazy bastard."

"Thank you. That is one of the greatest compliments that I have ever been given. Ever since I entered the Black Ops Division I don't really get that many. What can I say? It's a thankless job, but someone has to do it."

"You have made a grave mistake," Amelia said as she picked up her bow.

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"You didn't ask me my name sooner," Amelia said, a magic circle appearing around the centre of her bow before splitting in two, running up and down the bow before stopping.

Once the bow was gone and then the one at the bottom disappeared while the one at the top split in two, one staying where it was, the other running down past Amelia's hand, leaving a weapon that the assassin had never seen before in its place. It was a trident dagger, made of a blue metal, with the outer tines shorter than the 'blade'. At the end of the blade was an ice dart that Amelia could control with her mind(1). He asked, "What is _that_?"

"This?" Amelia said, hefting the weapon in her hand. "This is the only bladed weapon that I have ever owned."

"What about that sword in your right hand?"

"I just got that from dad today. To tell the truth, I really prefer not to have to use this anyway. But you've left me little choice." '_Not true, but I want to show off a little._' She then pointed her sword up in the air and said, "Fly," causing the ice dart to fly off the blade and circle around behind Amelia's opponent.

Her opponent started to turn to defend against the ice dart before Amelia attacked him from the front, first with the blade she had been using thus far, which was defended by the shield, before attacking with her second blade, which the man defended with his sword. But, as the two swords clashed he felt something pierce through his back before collapsing at Amelia's feet. He said, "What did you…"

Amelia hefted her new blade as she said, "The dart that was on the end of this sword pierced through your spine. You won't be able to move anymore."

"Kill me," the man said.

"Why should I?" Amelia asked.

"You'd be doing me a favour."

Amelia let out a laugh before she said, "Then I'm definitely not going to kill you." She started to walk towards the Dragonkin as it turned to face her. As she passed by her opponent, she said, "My name… is Amelia."

The man thought, '_Amelia! I'd heard the rumours but…_'

XXXXX

Shara charged directly at her opponent, her wings' afterburners flaring as they propelled her forward. As the robot fired at her she moved her wings' 'feathers' to easily dodge each one. When she was close enough she flew up the robots body and, levelling off at its head, reached out to its shoulder-mounted guns in an attempt to take them as well. The robot, having beared witness to her ability to take pieces off of it, didn't want her doing it again. It swiped at Shara, but missed as she moved her wings so that she flew out of its reach. She thought, '_Well, I figured it wouldn't work anyway._' She extended her right arm forward and cupped her hand so that it was pointed to the ground. The spikes on her right arm started to emit sparks before they, and the ones on her left arm, generated electrical shields shaped like folding fans.

The energy disappeared as a lotus formed of white electricity beneath her hand. She clutched it, causing the energy to flow throughout her metallic suit, supercharging it. She flew faster than the robot could follow before appearing behind it, and ripping off its arms, sparks escaping from the break. She flew back to her side as golden magic circles appeared at the breaks before new arms formed in their place. These ones had no turrets on them that Shara could see. She thought, '_I wonder what kind of weapon it has this time?_' the robot pointed its arms at Shara before sections on the back of its hand opened up and shot ten missiles at her, five from each hand. As it did it also started firing at her with its shoulder-mounted guns, each shot missing the missiles that it had shot at Shara.

Shara tried to dodge all of the shots, but, while she did successfully dodge all of the shots from the shoulder-mounted guns, she did get hit by one of the missiles, which hit the joint of her right wing that connected it to her shoulder. It would have done more damage than it did, but when she supercharged her suit she activated its self-repair system, which immediately starts a repair cycle as soon as any part of her suit comes into contact with something that was not her, or part of her suit. She raised her left hand to the joint and rubbed it before saying, "Hmm, nope. Not a scratch."

The robot started to emit steam from where Shara imagined its hearing receptors would have been and she had to restrain herself from giggling as it fired anything and everything that it had at her. She flew up to avoid the bullets, but had to keep on flying to avoid the missiles, but took note that it hadn't kept firing the missiles at her. She thought, '_Alright, it can't fire more than ten of those missiles at once. Those turrets can only shoot single round shots and it can change its weapons out based on the situation. I'd say I know it pretty well now._'

She then flew at the robot before flying between its legs. The missiles dropped to the floor and didn't activate. '_So, they don't blow up if they get too close to the firer._' She then flew up behind the robot and placed both hands on its back. She said, "Take Over, Máquina Soul: Andromalius." A gold magic circle appeared before her hands that sucked the robot into it. Once the robot was sealed the magic circle descended over Shara's body, leaving her, not in the suit that she had been wearing, but a skin-tight version of the robots outer shell, including the wings that she had originally stolen. She helmet that she was wearing was similar to the once that her other suit had, except this one was black and seemed to be somehow more menacing due to the angular designs etched into it. She sighed from within the suit and said, "This is more like it," as the enemy before her turned to face her.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, in the council chambers Clair D'lien had defeated Colette. Colette shouted, "I'm not going to tell you a thing. You hear?"

Lynn looked down at them and said, "It doesn't really matter wether you tell us anything or not Colette, I can just use my archive to probe knowledge that you have gained over the years."

Colette looked aghast as she cried, "You can't do that, it's impossi…kklkh," choking on her words as blood splashed over the floor from the cut that appeared on her throat.

Clair said, "What…?" as she had seen nothing move.

While the collective Mages and Knights sat around trying to figure out what had just happened Lynn didn't move her sword from Michel's neck, so she was stunned when his visage started to shimmer in and out of existence. She said, "Damn," and stabbed her sword through his neck. The image disappeared altogether. "I was careless."

High Commander Hikreux punched the back wall of the podium that they were on, causing it to splinter under the force. He growled in anger as he thought, '_Dammit. He'd probably cast the illusion just after Lynn put her sword to his neck. I don't know why he didn't just make his escape though…unless Colette knew where he was going. Assassinating a liability while they are fighting like those two were would have been stupid, so waiting until just now was the logical choice. I…no…we need to find out where he's headed._'

While her husband was trying to work out a next move, Lynn was trying to do the same. '_We can't just leave Michel on the loose with all he knows. I might be able to work out where he's headed with my Archi…wait. That's only provided that the reports that were submitted are accurate. Given the current situation it is not out of the realm of possibility that he would have falsified mission reports._'

General Samuel 'Romeo' Floris spoke up for the first time since the trial had started. "Commander."

"How many times do I need to tell you Sam? You can call me by Robert."

"As always, one more than last."

High Commander Hikreux sighed before saying, "What?"

"It would appear that Shara, Amelia and…Ichigo I think it was, have finished fighting."

"Huh?"

Romeo was about to say something, but Lynn interrupted. "What Rob means, Sam, is that Shara's, Amelia's and Ichigo's magical power hasn't died down any. That means that there is still some enemy left to fight. There must have been mages there to protect the ones casting the death magic."

Romeo focused harder and said, "You're right. But that means that we can…no. There would still be residual death magic in the interrogation chamber."

Lynn said, "I know you're worried about Shara, but right now there are more important things to be concerned with."

"True," Romeo said, "What do we do with the Black Ops Division?"

Councilman Yuorlak, hearing what the Generals were discussing, said, "What do you mean 'what we do with them'?"

High Commander Hikreux said, "We aren't just going to let this slide old man. The Black Ops Division has clearly been undertaking measures that have been concealed. This cannot be overlooked and you have no say in this."

Councilman Yuorlak thought, '_This isn't good. If they reorganise it how they see fit I won't be able influence their actions anymore._' "Whydon't you let us on the Magic Council take care of that?"

"No."

"You said it yourself. If the Black Ops Division has been infiltrated it is likely that more than one member of them has turned rogue. I would like to ensure that there is no mistreatment of the members of the Rune Knights and the investigations not turn into some kind of witch hunt."

"Do you doubt the integrity of the gathered Generals?"

"No, of course not, but some of your own subordinates may be involved as well. Now while we may not doubt your integrity, some in the public domain may see an investigation into the Rune Knight Organisation being conducted solely by the Rune Knights themselves as them trying to cover it up. So, for the public to continue to put their trust in our two organisations, I would request that you let _us_ take care of it."

"No. This is a matter for our organisation to deal with. Not yours."

Lead Councilman Halgarth said, "If I may suggest something, High Commander?"

"What?" High Commander Hikreux gruffly asked.

"While I do agree that it is a matter for your organisation to deal with, Councilman Yuorlak does have a point. So I would request that you allow one of us to join in on your investigations and liaise with us about what is uncovered?" As Lead Councilman Halgarth was talking, he was thinking, '_I'd like to know why Yuorlak is so interested in this matter._'

'_Well, it wouldn't hurt to have a set of outside eyes looking in on this case._' "Very well then, Councilman Gran Doma can liaise between our two organisations in this matter."

XXXXXXX

A/N

Despite the name of this chapter, The Taken Shinigami is far from over.

(1) swords_1_by_shane1594


End file.
